Scripture: 1 Samuel 22

1 John 2:18: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.”

I. You can still have faith when antichrists come because of God’s providence.

A. 1 Samuel 22 opens with David on the run from King Saul. By opposing God’s true Christ (anointed one) in the person of David, Saul has become an antichrist. David goes to a cave at Adullam (vs. 1). And who joins him at this cave? His brothers and all his father’s house. Saul would try to kill not just David but David’s family as well.

B. Verse 3 says that David takes his family to the king of Moab. David wants to leave his family under the protection of this king while Saul is hunting him down. Why? David had some Moabite blood in him. David’s great-grandmother Ruth came from Moab. More than a century before David’s problems with King Saul, God was at work to prepare a place for David’s family to be protected. This is providence. God controls and cares for all things for His intended ends.

II. You can still have faith when antichrists come because of God’s word.

A. In 1 Samuel 22 the antichrist Saul tells a Gentile to conduct a holy war against God and God’s priests. Doeg then kills 85 priests in vs. 18. But he does not stop there. Verse 19 says Doeg went to Nob, the city of priests, and he put the whole town to the sword. What Saul did here is truly evil. It is the work of an antichrist. It was ghastly, brutal, unjust. It was the work of a butcher.

B. In 1 Samuel 2:31-33 God made a prophecy to the priest Eli about what would happen to his family because of their many sins. God kept His Word to Eli here in 1 Samuel 22. Saul vigorously attacked the priests, but he was simply executing God’s will and God’s word. All that antichrists can do is fulfill God’s Word. They are under God’s control. Christ will win. Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

III. You can still have faith when antichrists come because of God’s remnant.

A. The word remnant means that which remains. There was one priest who remained after Doeg finished slaughtering the priests because of Saul’s command. His name is Abiathar (vs. 20). God always preserves His people in the middle of an antichrist’s destruction. There will always be a church on earth to worship God according to His will.

Application:
Keep your faith in Christ when you see the work of antichrists.

Sources:
The book of 1 Samuel
Commentaries on 1 Samuel by Dale Ralph Davis, Robert Bergen and Tim Chester

Sermon Discussion Questions

1) God’s providence took care of David’s family and protected them. How have you seen God’s providence at work in your life or in your family’s lives?

2) Can you identify some antichrist figures in the Bible or in history? Why can the promises in God’s Word strengthen your faith when you see an antichrist at work?

3) God always has a remnant of His people who are faithful to Him on this earth. How does the faith of other Christians strengthen your faith?