verse 10 and it came to pass
on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul and he
prophesied in the midst of the house and David played with his
hand as at other times and there was a javelin in Saul's hand
and Saul cast the javelin for he said I will smite David even
to the wall with it And David avoided out of his presence twice. Now, this is a scene, as the
text declares, that has played out before. He played with his
hand as at other times. And that draws our attention
to 1 Samuel chapter 16. Look at it with me, just a page
over there or two. 1 Samuel 16, 14. I want to read
this because David had played the harp for
Saul before, but there's a very obvious, stark difference this
time, and we want to see what it is. Look at verse 14 of chapter
16. But the Spirit of the Lord departed
from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And
Saul's servant said unto him, Behold, now an evil spirit from
God troubleth thee. Let our Lord now command thy
servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man who is a cunning
player on an harp. And it shall come to pass, when
the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with
his hand, and thou shalt be well. And Saul said unto his servants,
Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.
Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen
a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing. and
a mighty, valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters,
and a comely person, and the Lord is with him. Wherefore Saul
sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son,
which is with the sheep. And Jesse took an ass laden with
bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David
his son unto Saul. And David came to Saul, and stood
before him, and he loved him greatly. And he became his armor-bearer,
and Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand
before me, For he hath found favor in my sight. And one of
the reasons that Saul loved him so much was here. It came to
pass that every time the evil spirit from God was a bone saw
that David took in harp and played with his hand. So Saul was refreshed
and was well and the evil spirit departed from him. So he had
played at other times, and the result was that Saul was blessed
by it, was helped by it. So here in our text tonight,
the evil spirit from the Lord comes back another time and was
troubling Saul, and David came in and played like he did before,
but Saul didn't love David greatly now. Not this time. He tries to kill
him. Why? You would think that Saul
would have all the more reason to love David because since chapter
16, David has saved the whole country. He saved all the Israelites
as their champion against Goliath. Defeated him and saved them from
a lifetime of servitude to the Philistines. But there was one
problem. There's one reason. That's why
I wanted to look at this the way we did. I want to narrow
it down. There's one reason. why it was
different this time. Look at verses 5 through 9 of
our text, chapter 18. And David went out whithersoever
Saul sent him and behaved himself wisely. Well, that's good. You
know, you have a servant, you want him to do what you tell
him and do it in a wise way. Because things happen, don't
they? Things come up and you want them
to be able to think on their feet. David was that man. And
Saul set him over the men of war and was accepted And he was
accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight
of Saul's servants. And it came to pass as they came,
when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine,
that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and
dancing to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments
of music. And the women answered one another
as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and
David his ten thousands. And Saul was very wroth, and
the saying displeased him. And he said, they have ascribed
unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but
thousands, and what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that
day forward. Saul had all kinds of reasons
to love David greatly, and one reason to despise him. And that's our lesson tonight.
I want to dwell on that. From that day forward, he hated
David. And what was it that changed
Saul's heart toward David? Very simply, it was a question
of glory. It was a question of glory. Who
is going to get the glory? And this is natural man's problem
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 2, we refer to so often. David represents here, as in
so many places, all through his life and all the scriptures concerning
him, he represents the Savior. Saul was okay with David doing
something for Saul. Boy, when he helped him, played
the harp and it helped his heart, boy, he was happy about that. And people love it, you know,
they'll attribute all kinds of blessings They'll say, well,
the Lord blessed me here. He blessed me there. He did this
for me. They don't have much problem with that. And he didn't have, Saul didn't
have any problem with David saving everybody. Christ can bless me a thousand
different ways and we'll even attribute it to him, won't we?
Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. He blessed me. I'll even say
he saved me. He's everybody's Savior Don't
have a problem with that like David was in a physical sins,
but when the throne When the throne comes into question Man has a problem And I say this to any who In
this room tonight despises the Lord yet. I There may very well
be some. And I say this to us who know
Him and believe on Him and have bowed to Him because we still
have a rebel in our heart. You start preaching that Christ
saves whoever He wants to save. You start preaching that his
precious blood redeemed everybody he died for. In other words,
you just simply start actually giving him all of the glory and
salvation. You shut men up to him. You say
that salvation is not up to you, it's up to him. It's his decision. It's his will. And man has a
real problem with that. And we see it pictured here now.
It was the throne. That was what can he have yet
but the throne, the kingdom. They're acting like he's king
and I'm not. They're giving him more glory
than they're giving me. You know, the thing about it
is David deserved it, didn't he? He deserved it. King Saul was AWOL. on more than one occasion when
Israel was in trouble. We've seen in our study. But not David. And our David, our king, the
son of David, and David's Lord, he deserves all of it. He deserves
all of the glory. And it is still today, this evening,
a question of glory Turn with me to Romans chapter 10, verse
1. Romans 10, 1. In the matter of salvation, it
is a question of glory. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. They are
lost. They are on the road to hell.
They are trusting their own works, as we'll see in the text here
we're going to read, and not Christ. And my prayer is that
God would save them. Not that they'd come to their
senses, not that they would agree with me. My prayer is God save
them. That's what needs to happen.
That's what needs to happen in our community, That's what needs
to happen in our country, just like it did David's. Have you
ever prayed, God, save them, save them. These people are lost,
they're blind and they're killing themselves. They're murdering
their own souls. They are their own worst enemy,
just like I was, just like I still am. Oh God, save them, save them. Verse two, for I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God. It's not that they're not religious.
They talk about God, and they're excited about God, and they have
churches every corner, supposedly praising God and worshiping God.
They say, they open his book every once in a while and talk
about him, but it's not according to knowledge. In other words,
they're saying, we worship God, we serve God, we love God, but
they don't know God. And if you don't know God, you
can't love Him, you can't serve Him, you can't worship Him. They
don't know Him, it's not according to knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, this is the problem. They don't
understand that God is holy and righteous and He demands perfection. If they did understand that,
they wouldn't go about to establish their own righteousness. If they
weren't ignorant of God's righteousness, Paul said, you who would be under
the law, don't you hear the law? And the rhetorical, the answer
to that rhetorical question is simply, no, you don't. You haven't
heard the law or you wouldn't want to be under the law. The
law being an expression of God's righteous requirements and claims
upon us that we can never meet. They're ignorant of God's righteousness
and therefore they go about to establish their own righteousness
because being ignorant they have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. They haven't bowed. They haven't
relinquished their Authority their will their way their works Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness When he says they haven't submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God He's saying they haven't bowed
to Christ Who is himself? The goal of the law The law points
to him Because he's the only one that can fulfill it that
ever did fulfill it that ever shall fulfill it And it's the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth everybody that believes
on him says I don't want my law keeping I don't want my my religious
heritage. It's all done then. I won't win
him People are fine with Christ saving
them as long as they don't have to bow. It's the submission part
that we have a problem with by nature. Submitting to Him. As long as they can still be
the one that casts the deciding vote, you know. They actually
say that election is the devil votes against you, the Lord votes
for you, and you cast the deciding vote. Sounds kind of like you
saved yourself, doesn't it? Sounds a lot like that. That's
blasphemy. But as long as that's, you know,
as long as that's what election is, I believe in election. You
believe in a fairy tale. As long as it's still up to them,
you know, they're okay with being saved by God. God saved me. Yeah, how did that happen? He
did everything he could and left it up to me and I Made my decision
for Jesus and I live for him now That's lost that's what Paul
said that's what that's where the Jews were when Paul said
God save them save them They're going about to establish their
own righteousness before God. They haven't bowed. Oh Just like Saul, he was fine with
David helping his problem. Come play the harp, it's beautiful,
it helps me. And he was okay with David saving
him as long as he was still on the throne. The problem is God's
already anointed somebody else. God's rejected Saul and told
him he did. And said there's a neighbor of
yours that I'm gonna that my spirit is going to be upon now
and I'm going to anoint his king. And he's going to be my king,
not you. And that's when Saul had a problem
now. He went from loving David greatly,
everybody loves Jesus now, until they find out he's God. Christ can make us feel better
about ourselves. He can drive away the evil spirits,
you know. He can get us out of all the
messes that we're in. But the throne is ours. Right
up until the time when God comes in mercy and knocks the crown
off of your head. That's a wonderful day. Oh, blessed
day. God in mercy knows how to put
us in the dust at the feet of his son. And what a blessing
that he does that. What a blessing. Listen to some
scripture. Let's turn with him because I don't have a whole
lot tonight. When God afflicted Job and put him on the ash heap.
Look at Job 19.8. This is such a blessing. The way Job described his experience
now with God putting him on the ash heap. He didn't just say,
oh, woe is me, you know, I've got more problems than everybody
else and nobody understands my problems and complain and all
this stuff. He called it like it was. He
knew what was happening. That's why the Lord at the end
of Job, with the book of Job, said to Job's friends, you haven't
spoken that which is right concerning me as my servant Job hath. Job 19, 8. He hath fenced up
my way that I cannot pass. He shut me up to Christ. Is that what happened to Job?
He got shut up to Christ? You tell me. God put him on the
ash heap. What did he say when he was on
the ash heap? I know that my Redeemer liveth. I know he liveth. He has set darkness in my paths. And notice there, I cannot pass.
He's in control of me. I can't, not I will, not what
James said, you know, I will go into, tomorrow I will do this,
I'll go into such a city and buy and sell and get game. No,
God's hedged me up. I'm gonna go where he says go. And he hath stripped me of my
glory. How about you? Can anybody relate to what Job
is saying tonight? He hath stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head. Has God ever done that for you?
Not to you, for you, because that's a great mercy. Isn't it
wonderful? Oh, Paul, he introduced all of
his letters in the Word of God. He said, Paul, a servant. Jesus
Christ what a blessing that it what an honor what an honor This was the issue now in the
garden who's going to be God it was the issue right from the
start Satan said you shall be as gods That was the issue not
how you know pretty the apple was compared to the other fruit
I suspect there was a lot of beautiful things in the garden
and A lot of wonderful things that they could have taken home.
But Satan said, but you should be his gods. Romans 8, 7 says this, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. That's what happened in
the garden. When Adam fell, he hated God,
and he wanted to be God, and we still do. The carnal mind is enmity against
God, for it is not subject to the law of God, to the word of
God. Not what we call the law, the
Ten Commandments or the Levitical law, but the law we know is the
whole word. We're not subject to the gospel
of God. We don't subject ourselves to him by nature at all. Anything
that God says or does, And the word subject is not subject. The carnal mind is not subject. It is not subordinate. That's
the word. It has not submitted to the law
of God, the word of God. God's going to call the shots.
Amen. So be it. That's submission to
the law of God. Not just the 10 commandments.
Everything that proceeds from his mouth. Neither indeed can
be. It's not subject. We're not subject
to him by nature and we can't be as we are. God's got to change
us. That old heart cannot ever be
subject to the law of God. It's just not going to be. Got
to give us a new one. The old one's got to die. But
sooner or later it will. I'm looking forward to it. I'm
looking forward to it by God's grace. That was the issue in
the garden, as I said, and this is the issue today. The problem
was who gets the glory from the star, and the solution to that
problem, salvation, the remedy for sin, has no glory in it for the flesh. None. Ephesians 2. I want you to turn over there.
You know what it says, but I want you to turn there because I'm
going to read a little further than we usually do, and I want you to see this
in the context of our study tonight. Ephesians 2.4 Ephesians 2.4 But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, when we were dead he quickened us. How much glory
are you getting out of that? How much glory does Lazarus get
for walking out of the grave? When we were dead, he gave us
life and quickened us together with Christ. That's why Paul
said in parentheses right after that, by grace are you saved
because it's undeniable, isn't it? If I was dead and he gave
me life, he came where I was and gave me life. I can't boast
in that. And that's exactly what happened.
Verse six, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He gave us life, He raised
us, and then made us sit. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He makes me to rest in the Son
of God, who hath accomplished salvation for me, by living for
me and by dying for me. Verse seven, that in the ages
to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace. in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves even the faith that believes
on Christ and comes to Christ and calls upon him and confesses
our sins before him that comes from him too that not of yourselves
it is the gift of God not of works Because if he did all,
if he had grace in every other sense but left faith up to you,
you know what you'd do? You'd brag about it. And we see
that happening all around us, don't we? Religion does brag
about it. Oh, I'm thankful God saved me, you know. And then,
you know, he left it up to me and I believed on him. If I've heard that once, I've
heard it a million times. God's done all he can do and
now it's up to you. That's hopelessness. That's not
a gospel. That's bad news, my friends.
Not of works lest any man should boast. You know what that word
boast means? Glory. It's a question of glory. It has been from the start. It
is tonight. And it's still an issue for us,
isn't it, even though God has knocked the crown off of our
head. There's still a rebel in our heart that we deal with every
day. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. You take it as far as you want
to go. It's God. It's His glory. And none for us Not a speck. Saul of Tarsus, what an example
of this. What did the Lord do to Saul?
Acts 9.1 if you want to turn there, but I'll read it to you
if you don't. Acts 9.1. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. Boy, he thought
he was something, didn't he? He had authority. He went unto the
high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, any believers, any Christians,
any followers, disciples of Christ, whether they were men or women,
that he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. He got authority,
and he had it, and he went around and threatened and slaughtered
the disciples. And as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus, and suddenly there shined a light round about him
from heaven And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying
unto him, imagine what that light. You know, if I saw a great light
of some kind in the heaven, you might think I'd look up. That's
not what Saul did. So there must've, there was something
about that light. He fell to the earth. It put
him in the dust. And he heard a voice saying unto
him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who are
you, Lord? How long did it take Saul to
figure out who was on the throne? All God had to do was shine a
light. The Lord Jesus Christ shone his face upon Saul. Because
this wasn't the sun now. The sun, it was brighter than
the noonday sun. This is the glory of Christ,
Shannon. And you know what that does?
It'll snuff your glory out. That's what it'll do. That's
what happened here. He shined his face on him and
spoke and called him to account. Isn't that what he did? Why are
you persecuting me? Answer me. What have you got
to say for yourself? Who are you, Lord? And the Lord
said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against,
the word is goads, to kick against the goads. The Lord of glory
had been goading this proud Pharisee like a mule. Is that all right with you? Is
it okay with you? Has he done that to you? Do you
hate him for it or love him for it? And he trembling and astonished
said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? That's what you call
submission. That's full surrender. That's
stacking your guns in the corner and coming out with your hands
up. That's what that is. That's how sinners are saved.
No glory for me. You're calling the shots, Lord.
You call them and you tell me what to do. Tell me where to
go. Tell me what to say and give me the grace to do it. And the Lord said unto him, Arise
and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou
must do. And Saul didn't have a problem
with it, did he? I tell you what, a few verses back, he might have
had a problem with anybody telling him what to do. Not now. Not
now. Someone else is calling the shots
now. And that is essential to salvation now. I say that because
God doesn't save sinners any other way. Paul said, I'm a pattern
of all believers. In the way that God, the way
He saved me, He saves everybody that way. Whoever shall call upon the name
of the who? Whosoever shall call. Everybody
focuses on that word whosoever. That's a good word. But who are
we calling on? The Lord. The Sovereign. The King, the one who calls the
shots. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. John said he must increase, he
must increase, and I must decrease. That's what we're talking about. King Saul wasn't ready for that.
I don't reckon he ever was. Don't know. As far as we know,
he never bowed. to God's King. Saul wasn't interested
in decreasing, was he? Or seeing David increase? He
wasn't interested in that. But God had already anointed
David. It's going to happen whether you like it or not. I want to
make that clear tonight. You know this is true, don't
you? Whether you like it, him calling the shots, or don't like
him calling the shots, he's calling the shots. He's going to call
them one way or another in your case. He's going to put you in
hell forever just because He wants to, or He's going to save
you and bring you to live with Him forever just because He wants
to. It's all according to whatever He wants. That's the one whose name we
call on. While on others, Lord, you're
calling. While you're having mercy on sinners, Lord, don't
pass me by. And Saul knew it was God. He
knew it was God. I want to stress this before
I close. He'd been told. Let me read you 1 Samuel 15.
One chapter before we read where David came in and played with
his hand. 1 Samuel 15, 22. Listen to this. Samuel said,
Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Samuel is speaking to King
Saul here, and you remember the occasion of it. when God told
him to go in and slaughter everybody. And Samuel said, I can hear animals.
And he kept the king, he kept the kings alive, the ones in
authority, in direct disobedience to God. And Saul made an excuse. He said, we saved these animals
to offer them to the Lord. That was a lie. He saved those
animals, the best, because he wanted, he said, boy, we don't
want to waste these. He was going to use them as breed
stock, you reckon? He didn't care anything about
God. But when he got called on the carpet, he tells another
lie. And says, oh, we saved these to offer sacrifice to God. And
Samuel said, that's not going to cut it either, Saul. You disobeyed
God. Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. Verse 23, for
rebellion, that's what you did. You rebelled against God. You
took up arms against the King of glory. Unbelief is high treason
against the God of heaven and earth. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft
and stubbornness. hardening your neck, bowing up
against God, insisting upon your will and
your way, rather than his. This is iniquity
and idolatry. You're worshiping yourself. Because thou hast rejected the
word of the Lord, he also hath rejected thee from being king.
And he told Saul, there's a neighbor of yours I'm gonna raise up.
I'm putting you down. And so Saul knew it was God. He knew it was God. And I believe
the reason that he added David is he's thinking maybe David
is that one God said was going to take my place. Maybe he is. That's not going to happen. He
wasn't about to let that happen. But he knew if God says it, it's
done. Listen to verse 12 of our text,
and Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was departed from Saul. Now,
David is a type of Christ without any doubt in this text and in
every text that David is mentioned in, really. He is God's anointed
king that had not yet ascended the throne, but ultimately would. He was the champion of God's
people. He had saved them single-handedly. But what we need to see for just
a second in this verse, in verse 12, David just as David for a
second. In this sense, because the Lord
himself is mentioned in the same verse as David. Here, so David's
just David in this verse for a second. And here's why that's
important, because Saul, it's instructive that Saul, though
he knew that the Lord was the one who had left him and was
now with David, but it says that Saul was afraid of David. He
didn't say he was afraid of the Lord. That's a problem. That's a problem. But Saul knew it was the Lord.
Let's talk about that for just a second. Saul knew that he didn't
miss David with that spear because he was bad at throwing spears.
Saul was a pretty good warrior himself. God is doing this. And Saul knew it. And listen
to me this evening. People know. People know it's
God. They know it's God. That's a
big part of the tragedy, isn't it? That people know it's the
tragedy of it. Those, there are those that I
love that they know the truth. They know better in their head.
They know what God said. But they will not bow. That's the problem now. People
will hear this gospel. I've had people come and hear
this gospel and they'll say, boy, I believe what you preach.
Boy, thank you for that message. I believe what you preach. And
you know, they'll say, I know I need to hear this. And I'm
gonna start coming, I'm gonna start coming. And the more they
say that, the more you know you're not ever gonna see them again.
And listen, it's not about attendance. It's about who is running your
life. That's what it's about. You attending
the worship is just a symptom of that. It's not about filling
up the church pew. It's about who is running the
show. Who's running your show. That's what it's about. It is
a question of glory. It's all new. People know. They know. I'm telling you now,
you know they do. You can't hate somebody you don't
know. You can't hate a doctrine that
you don't understand. The problem is not that they
don't understand it. People know in Acts chapter 26,
Paul had been arrested. Turn over there with me at Acts
26 verse 19. The Apostle Paul had been arrested
and is brought before King Agrippa to plead his case. And Paul tells
Agrippa the story of what happened to him that we referred to a
while ago. He told Agrippa all about how he was a Pharisee of
the Pharisees. And he was going to do the bidding
of the religious Jews of the day. He was killing and persecuting
and imprisoning the believers, those of this way. And he told
Agrippa all about that and how that God shone that light from
heaven upon him and spoke to him and said, Saul, I'm calling
you. I'm calling the shots. I've got
something for you to do. He told him how that God met him
on the road to Damascus. And then Paul said in verse 19, Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I
was not disobedient under the heavenly vision. Yeah, nobody
is When God says let there be light there's light And when
he remember that that old fellow that centurion that said lord,
I'm one under authority and I have Those under me and I know something
about authority And I know this you just say the word and it's
done I tell my servants go and they go that's what Saul did
Paul now Verse 20 but showed First unto
them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts
of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, and
turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. For these causes
the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me. Having
therefore obtained help of God, I continue to this day." They
would have killed me a long time. Psalm, he knew. They'd have killed
me a long time ago if it wasn't for God. I think they did kill
him once, and the Lord raised him up. Seemed like it when they
stoned him. I continue this day witnessing both the small and
great, saying none other things than those which the prophets
and Moses did say should come. I'm just preaching the Word of
God, the Old Testament, that Christ should suffer. We preach
Christ crucified. And that he should be the first
that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the
people and to the Gentiles. And as he thus spake for himself,
Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself.
Much learning does make thee mad. But he said, I'm not mad,
most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and
soberness. Anybody that doesn't believe
the words of truth and sober, they're the ones that's mad.
For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak
freely. For I am persuaded that none
of these things are hidden from him, for this thing was not done
in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know you
do. You see that? How many people
in your life could you say that to? I know you know what God
says. I know you know what this book
says. It's not cloudy. It's not ambiguous. God is God, he saves who he wants
to. He said, I'll have mercy on him,
I'll have mercy. He said, Jacob, have I loved,
and Esau, have I hated? It's not that people don't know
that, it's that they don't like it. They hate the God that's
on the throne. They're not gonna bow to him
until he shines his light upon them. I know that you believe. Isn't
that tragic? Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
Almost! Thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
You know, that's admission. He's admitting that Paul's right.
Yeah, I know what you're preaching. Agrippa didn't say, No, Paul,
you're out of your mind. I don't believe anything. He
didn't say that. He did believe. Up here, one problem. He would not bow. Almost thou
persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God
that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were
both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.
I can't read that hardly because there are those that I love very
much that are in this exact same. They're almost persuaded. They
know what I preach, just as sure as we do. They know exactly what
I preach. That God's never revealed himself.
The gospel that they hear, just like we, Paul said, it did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. God's got to give you faith, you see. To believe with the heart. To
bow. to fall in love with the Son
of God. But if you bow up now against
God and harden your heart against Him and stiffen your neck against
Him, you will lose and you will lose forever. Saul will see for
all of his scheming, for all of his treachery, for
all of his conniving and his efforts to destroy David, and
we'll see a lot of that coming up in the next few lessons. It was inevitable, wasn't it?
God said, I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion, and
you better kiss him. You better kiss him. You better
bow. You better pledge allegiance to him now, lest he be angry
and consume you in the way. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. But they know, don't they, you
can't hate Somebody you don't know. I know they don't know
Him in the eternal sense. I understand that. But remember
what Paul said in Romans 1? When they knew God. What did
they not do? They glorified Him not as God. It's a question of glory. It
always has been. And it always will be. And there's going to come a day
When every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to
confess, all the glory is yours, Lord. You deserve it. God has done all that he has
done for his glory and the glory of his son. And thank God he's
glorified in saving sinners. He had mercy on the vessels of
mercy, afore appointed unto mercy. in order to show forth the riches
of his glory in Christ Jesus. And everybody that he saves is
real good with that. Real good with that. Lord, all
glory, not unto us, oh Lord, but unto thy name give glory. In spite of all of Saul's schemes
now, in spite of all of his imagined power and authority, all of his
rebellion, all of his plots to destroy David, God's King will
sit on his throne, we'll see it. And we'll rejoice to see
Christ in that passage as we did in this. And in spite of
all of the enmity of the hearts of men and spiritual wickedness
in high places and all of the hatred and opposition of sinners
in earth and in hell, God's Son reigns supreme and he always
will. And bless God. His people say
this, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only
wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever. Amen. Can you say that tonight? Amen. Let's bow.