Integrity

Passage: 1 Samuel 26

Intro: The man trying to kill him had lied to him, broken promises made to him, taken his wife and given her to another man.

1. 15 separate attempts on his life, personal attempts, hit squad attempts, attempts by sending him to battle.

2. what had he done to deserve?

3. volunteered for suicide mission, faithful service in army, willing servant of the king.

4. and now David had golden opportunity to end his trial, to kill his tormentor.

5. crouched at the head of a sound-asleep Saul, with a trusted friend eagerly waiting David’s approval to plunge the spear.

6. here is a test of integrity that few have ever experienced before.

7. the rationalizations were lined up in David’s heart like planes waiting to take off at Sky Harbor.

8. here is another example of faith in God, but from a different angle.

9. last week we saw an action taken, but this week we see an action refused.

10. both the action and the refusal to act spring from faith; from trust in God that overwhelms the natural response of the flesh.

11. let’s look at what David had to overcome, and how he did it.

12. because these choices are presented to us every day, and we need to learn how to respond to them with faith.

I. David Refused to Use the Sin of Another to Justify His Own.

1. Since David had killed Goliath, things had changed.

2. adventures on the battlefield, great success, had gotten Saul’s attention

3. Saul liked what David was accomplishing, but not the adulation that those accomplishments had caused.

PP 1 Samuel 18:7

4. jealousy aroused, typical male

PP 1 Samuel 18:9

5. next several chapters, attempt after attempt on David’s life.

6. here’s the classic. (set it up)

PP 1 Samuel 19:15

7. finally, open pursuit with an army of 3000 hand-picked men

8. all David wanted was to live at peace in the place where he could worship God

9. 26:19…”let me serve God”

10. Yet in spite of all this mistreatment, these terrible undeserved acts, David refused to even criticize Saul, much less kill him.

11. we know another man like that, don’t we?

PP 1 Peter 2:23

12. Saul gave every reason for David to kill him as he was trying to kill David.

13. and yet David refused to use that mistreatment as an excuse to behave in an ungodly way.

Il) with every hostage who is brutally decapitated, the desire grows for a response in kind. I admire the integrity of our forces, our president, who stands by principles and is not driven by the flesh.

II. David Did Not Listen to the Encouragement of Others to Sin.

1. I’m not sure why he asked for a buddy to go with him, but Abishai went.

2. Abishai was a bloodthirsty man, offered a few times to remove someones head from their shoulders for cursing D.

3. and so here, crouched by Saul, the whispering voice of Abishai makes a tempting offer.

4. v 8 “I’ll kill him, quickly, quietly, and with dignity. You can even say it was my idea, because it was.”

5. he even had a spiritual argument, that “God has delivered your enemy into your hands”

6. notice how Abishai seeks to absolve David on any guilt?

7. and David’s response is very interesting.

8. “who can lay a hand…and be guiltless”

9. not only concern for his own sin, but for Abishai?!

10. David unwilling to let another take the rap for something he OK’d.

il) sometimes the President of US portrayed as saying, “I don’t want to know about what you might do that is unlawful or unethical.

11. but this man of integrity made his decisions, took responsibility for his own actions.

III. David Did Not Interpret Circumstances As the Divine OK to Sin.

1. Abishai certainly did in v8

2. and the Bible even says God caused a deep sleep to fall on all of them, v12

3. when I was a kid, this was called “situation ethics”

4. ethical decisions confused by circumstances and situations that seemed to change things.

5. the situation became the deciding factor, because people doubted the existence of universal principles, or “right and wrong”

il) of course we see this all the time in our day, as our world struggles to discover what is acceptable based on changing social mores and situations.

6. the danger here is that we are looking for a reason to sin, looking to interpret our circumstances as a sign from God that a certain action that was not OK before is all right now.

7. in the face of all these signs and circumstances, David held firm. How did he do that?