Making of a Man of God

Alan Redpath

Description

David was a shepherd and a king, a soldier and a poet, a sinner and a saint. He was also a man after God's own heart. In this Christian classic, Alan Redpath blends insights from 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles, and Psalms to demonstrate how God shapes those who are responsive to his love. Despite his many faults, David became a man who wondrously understood and reflected the mind of God. Both men and women will find themselves identifying with David's struggles and triumphs, giving them a glimpse of how God is continually shaping them as well.

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781585580798
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 1962 by Fleming H. Revell
Renewed 1990 by Mrs. Marjorie Redpath
Published by Fleming H. Revell
a division of Baker Book House Company
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-58558-079-8
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture marked ASV is taken from the American Standard Version of the Bible.
Scripture marked ERV is taken from the English Revised Version of the Bible.
Scripture marked WEYMOUTH is taken from WEYMOUTH’S NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN SPEECH by Richard Francis Weymouth. Published by special arrangement with James Clark & Company, Ltd., and reprinted by permission of Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.
Dedicated
to
the beloved President, Faculty, and Student Body
of
Columbia Bible College, Columbia, South Carolina,
whose fellowship in recent years has been such an
inspiration to me personally
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
P ART I T HE M AN OF G OD: Tested in Training
1. The Basis of God’s Choice 1 Samuel 16:1–13
2. Vanquishing the Enemy 1 Samuel 17:28–18:4
3. Souls in Conflict 1 Samuel 16:14–23; 18:5–12
4. Souls in Harmony 2 Samuel 1:17–27
5. Persecuted but Not Forsaken 1 Samuel 19:10–11, 18; Psalm 59:1–17
6. An Arrow from Heaven 1 Samuel 20:11–42
7. A Good Man in Bad Company 1 Samuel 21:1–13; Psalm 56:1–13
8. The Captain and His Crew 1 Samuel 22:1–23; Psalm 34:1–22
9. Learning to Look to the Lord 1 Samuel 23:1–28; Psalm 27:1–14
10. Loving Your Enemies 1 Samuel 24:1–22
11. Handling the Highhanded 1 Samuel 25:4–35
12. A Fit of Depression 1 Samuel 27:1–12
13. Return to Sanity 1 Samuel 29:1–30:10
14. Revival or Funeral? 1 Samuel 30:11–31
P ART II T HE M AN OF G OD: Lessons in Leadership
15. Coronation Day 2 Samuel 3:1–39
16. Sovereignty Contested 2 Samuel 5:1–25
17. Preparation for Service 2 Samuel 6:1–23
18. When God Says “No” 2 Samuel 7:1–29; 1 Chronicles 17:1–27
19. More than Conquerors 2 Samuel 8:1–18
20. The Exhibition of Grace 2 Samuel 9:1–13
21. How Are the Mighty Fallen! 2 Samuel 11:1–12:14
22. The Peril of a Divided House 2 Samuel 12:10–14:33
23. The Fellowship of His Sufferings 2 Samuel 15:1–37
24. Bring Back the King! 2 Samuel 19:1–43
25. Valiant in the Fight 2 Samuel 23:1–39
26. Fire from Heaven 1 Chronicles 21:1–30
27. Handing On the Torch 1 Chronicles 28:1–21
Foreword
T he Bible never flatters its heroes. It tells us the truth about each one of them in order that against the background of human breakdown and failure we may magnify the grace of God and recognize that it is the delight of the Spirit of God to work upon the platform of human impossibilities. As we consider the record of Bible characters, how often we find ourselves looking into a mirror. We are humiliated by the reminder of how many times we have failed. Great has been our stubbornness but greater still has been His faithfulness. Nowhere is this more true than in the story of the life of David, which is the subject of these chapters.
I can but testify to the fact that my own heart has been searched to its depths as I have been brought face to face with my own frailty and the abundant mercy of my Savior. It is my earnest prayer that something of the impact which the Holy Spirit made upon my own life in the preparing of this book might be made upon yours in the reading of it.
The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment, the manufacture of a saint is the task of a lifetime. It is the matchless marvel of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to take a life from the dunghill and set it among princes to replace the bias of degeneration by the bias of regeneration, and to cause a man who has sunk to the depths to cry to God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me…. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.”
May the Lord be graciously pleased to use these pages, inadequate though they be, to help many into a deeper understanding of His making of a man of God.
I want to express my deepest appreciation to Miss Arline Harris for her skillful preparation of manuscript and to my wife for her patience in transcription.
Alan Redpath, Moody Church Chicago, Illinois
Part I
The Man of God
Tested in Training
1
The Basis of God’s Choice
(1 S AMUEL 16:1–13)

And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.
And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord.
And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will shew thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee.
And Samuel did that which the Lord spake, and came to Bethlehem…. he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.
But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart….
Again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The Lord hath not chosen these…. Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep….
Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward….
T hese are days of immense significance to the Christian church. Any of us with discernment cannot but believe the truth of the Word of God, that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back soon to take His people home and thereafter to establish His kingdom. Yet how few of us relate our lives to this significant truth!
The machinery of the church is put to very severe strain and is working overtime, but that which the machinery produces so often lacks evidence of heavenly reality. The mass production of modern industry all kinds of goods which attract the eye but have little lasting quality is too often evident in the Christian church. In days like these I believe that it is quality and not quantity that is going to count.
The Lord is still looking, as He did in David’s time, for a man after His own heart. I believe it to be the priority responsibility of any ministry so to proclaim God’s Word that such a quality of Christian man, by the grace of God and the power of the Spirit, may be the result. Not only is it such a life alone which can stand the fiery trials that are bound increasingly to attack our Christian faith and principles, but also through the life of a Spirit-filled man of God is the fastest and most effective method of evangelism.
We begin by considering the basis of God’s choice of such a man. In the selection of everyone who enters the service of the King of kings there are always two sides: on the one hand there is the election of God in eternity, accompanied by His heavenly summons in the course of time to take up the cross and follow Him; on the other hand, there is the human response in commitment of life to Jesus Christ as Lord.
It is not my task or yours to guess who are among God’s elect. This is a secret hidden in the heart of God from before the foundation of the world. Yet by the preaching of the Word of God there will be unmistakable marks revealed in the lives of a great multitude which give evidence that they belong to God’s chosen people. We preach the gospel to every creature under heaven and say, “Look unto Jesus and be saved.” That gospel is like a fan that drives away the chaff and leaves the wheat. It removes the worthless and reveals the precious. We discover before long the elect of God by their conduct and their conversation, which have been transformed by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.
You and I become assured of our own election by the witness of the Holy Spirit with our spirit that we are indeed the children of God, and we discover within ourselves a new heart, a new creation in Christ, far from perfect and yet, by His grace, hungry for the Lord. Thus we know that our names are written in the Book of Life.
Concerning the principles of God’s choice, I use the illustration of the anointing of David here to point out three basic truths. In the first place, God’s choice of a man is contrary to human reason.
Nobody involved in the drama that day in Bethlehem would have guessed that David, of all the family of Jesse, would be God’s chosen one. His brothers obviously despised him you recall how scathingly Eliab greeted him when a little later he appeared to do battle against Goliath. To his family, he was only the lad who kept the sheep; the others pursued their business and pleasure in total disregard for the young stripling. They probably thought him very naïve, and quite moonstruck when he advised them to consider the heavens; they must have thought him an absolute fanatic when he meditated day and night upon the Lord.
Even David’s father called him “the youngest” (1 Sam. 16:11) and the word used in this connection, I understand, suggests something other than mere youth. It meant he was the least in his father’s estimation; so small was David in his father’s esteem that it wasn’t considered necessary to include him in the family when the