David went out to meet them, and answered them, If you be come peaceably to me to help me, my heart shall be knit to you; but if [you be come] to betray me to my adversaries, seeing there is no wrong in my hands, the God of our fathers look thereon, and rebuke it.
Notice how David put the other side of it, and set before them  the wrong way ,-- “But if ye be come to betray me to my enemies, seeing there is no wrong in mine hands, the God of our fathers look thereon, and rebuke it.” Will persons ever join the church to betray the Lord Christ to His enemies? I say not that such is their present purpose; but a great many have acted as if they were from the beginning traitors to Him and to His truth. They have come into the church, and yet they have betrayed Christ to His enemies; yea, they have been aided in their treachery by having been admitted within our ranks. Some have done this by giving up the doctrines of the gospel. Falling into this error and that, they have denied the gospel, overthrown the weak, and shaken the strong. Some have proved themselves the enemies of the cross of Christ by their inconsistent lives. People have pointed at them, and said, “Those are followers of Christ, you see. They can lie, and cheat, and get gain as the basest rogues do.” They say that they are Christians, and yet you cannot trust them in trade. They are just as gay, and worldly, and false as if they were not Christians at all. Why, then I suspect that they are not Christians at all; but like Judas Iscariot, they are children of perdition. Then there are some in all ages who betray the Lord Jesus by apostasy. They run well for a time, and then they are hindered. Being armed and carrying bows, they turn back in the day of battle. They are trees twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Such sorrowful heart-breaking cases do occur in all churches, where men come to the very front, and appear to do great service for Christ, and yet forsake Him, and walk no more with His people, nor in His ways; even denying that they ever were associated with Him and with His cause. They open His wounds! They put Him to an open shame! Woe unto them! Sorrowfully, yet sternly would I say, If there should be one here who will in some future day willfully betray the Savior on any account whatever, the Lord have mercy upon such, and prevent His joining with our church lest we be overwhelmed with shame and sorrow. True-hearted men, we invite you! Half-hearted, fickle men, we would avoid you! Yet such do come, and will come, and what can we say of them? “The God of our fathers look thereon and rebuke it,”--ay, rebuke it so as to prevent it, that they may not be as thorns in our side.
