First Samuel 16 verse 6 Remember
we looked at the first five verses last week where the Lord sent
Samuel to anoint David though Samuel didn't know who he was
going to anoint and Samuel sort of Tried to impose his will on the
situation as did Jesse the father of David and Let's look at verse
6. We'll back up a little bit. Look
at it. We looked at verses 6 and 7.
And we'll really start with verse 8 tonight, but we'll start reading
with verse 6. And it came to pass when they
were come that he looked on Eliab and said, surely the Lord's anointed
is before him. Samuel comes into the, or all
of Jesse and then his children come into to the sacrifice where
Samuel had come to offer sacrifice and they came to worship the
Lord and Samuel's eye immediately goes directly to Eliah, must
have been the tallest, strongest looking one of the bunch, you
know. But the Lord said unto Samuel, verse seven, 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. Then Jesse called Abinadab. So
Jesse's getting he's getting the idea here that Samuel has
we're not told that Samuel told Jesse what he was doing here
but clearly he did or somehow or another Jesse knows. So he
says well if it's not alive then he would have been a good choice
but next in line is Abinadab. This has got to be him. So Jesse
starts causing different ones to pass before Samuel but Samuel
said neither hath the Lord chosen this the Lord was telling him
somehow we'll talk about that a little bit verse 9 then Jesse
made Shammah to pass by and he said neither hath the Lord chosen
this verse 10 again Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before
Samuel all together there were seven of them David was the eighth
son and Samuel said unto Jesse the Lord hath not chosen these So let's talk about this for
a minute. God's clearly not impressed with the outward appearance,
with the outward countenance of a man, or even outward works,
even anything outward. And neither should we be. We
can't look on the heart like God does. But God looks on the
heart and then tells us what's in the heart. I don't need to
be able to look on the heart, I just need to trust Him about
what's in the heart. We know what's in the heart of
man because God tells us what it is. But as far as judging
people's character, we can look to the heart. We can't look on
the heart like God does, but we can understand from the word
of God that it's in the heart that is what matters. It's not what, you know, people
walking the walk and talking the talk. It's what's on the
inside. And that directs us to the right place. You remember
our Lord said of the Pharisees, they clean the outside of the
cup, but the problem's on the inside. And that's true with
every man. Instead of being impressed by
appearance and rhetoric, people can talk a good game, can't they?
But they speak impressive words that don't mean anything. Accomplishments
in this world even, because this world celebrates evil. But we can look for evidence
of character and grace that we know only can be in the heart
and only can be put there by God. Only God can look on the
heart. And even more importantly than
that, as we see also in the scripture, only God can work on the heart.
Only God can give a right heart, a clean heart. Our Lord said
in Matthew 7 15, beware of false prophets which come to you in
sheep's clothing. They're going to look good on
the outside. They're going to look like sheep. They're going to try to
look like my people. They're going to act like they
know me. They're going to say things to that effect, but inwardly
they are ravening wolves. They're dangerous and destructive.
You shall know them by their fruits, not by their words, Not
even by their actions. That's not what he means by fruits
here. Listen to it. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit. But a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. Now we know what the fruit of
the Spirit is. It's not actions. It's not words. It's love. Two people can say
the same thing to you, and it may sound like words of love,
and one of them may hate you. You've got to look for the fruit.
Not always seen on the side, not always easily discovered. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
This explains a lot about our natures as believers. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And good,
it's poisonous fruit. It's evil fruit. Wherefore by
their fruits you shall know them love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, kindness, goodness, faith. Do they believe on Christ? Do they believe God? Doesn't
matter what they say they believe or who they say they believe
on. You got to watch them to see if they do. if they do or
not. Perhaps the most important lesson
in this passage though is to realize that the way that Samuel
knew what he needed to know. Samuel's got a very important
task to carry out. You got anything important to
do tomorrow? Tonight? This week? The way Samuel knew what he needed
to know in order to do what he needed to do is God told him. Clearly, nobody in the room had
a clue concerning what needed to happen. They thought they
did, though. See, that's the thing. They didn't go in there
and say, well, I don't know who to pick. They were picking. They
were picking wrong. That's the important lesson here.
We're going to have to hear from God, aren't we? If we're going
to be able to do what needs to be done. If we're going to know
what we need to know, we're going to have to hear from God. We
must avail ourselves of every means by which God speaks to
sinners. He does it by men that speak
for Him. He does it by this book. He does
it by His gospel. He still speaks to sinners. What
do we need to know? Well, we need to know God. We
need to know who He is. We need to know how God saves
sinners because that's our comfort and our joy and our hope, our
salvation, our encouragement. And the answer, of course, is
Christ. How are we going to find out anything about Him? No man
knoweth the Father or the Son except those to whom He reveals
it. He reveals Himself. God speaks
to us through His Word, His Gospel. What do we need to know? I'd
like to know the will of God, wouldn't you? People in religion,
they say, well I just want to do God's will. But do you have
any idea what God's will is? God's will is to glorify his
son, and there's not a whole lot of that in religion. So I
think they're on the wrong track. His will should guide us in all
that we do. We need to know his will. Take my yoke upon you,
the master said, and learn of me. Learn who God is. Learn what he's like. Learn what
he likes and what he don't. Learn his ways. We can't go through
this life letting our conscience be our guide. Or let our following
our heart, as people say, just follow your heart. That's the
worst advice you could possibly get. If God had left Samuel to
his own heart in this manner, they would have had another 30
years of horrible decisions and destructive leadership. As God looked upon Eliab's heart
and it wasn't there. What needed to be there wasn't
there. And he looked on the hearts of
the others and said, no, I refuse them. We need to hear from God. That's
the lesson, isn't it clear? God knows everything. God don't
make mistakes. And God loves us eternally. And God is gracious and wise
and perfect. Let's hear from him. And as Mary
said concerning him at the wedding feast, Whatever he says, do it. But did God speak to Samuel with
an audible voice? Or was it maybe an inner voice
that only Samuel could hear? Or was it just some mental, strong
mental impression that God made upon Samuel's mind? I don't know. And it doesn't matter. But I
know how he'll speak to you. That's what matters. I know how
he'll speak to me if he's going to. That's what we need to know.
If He's going to speak to us, we know how He'll do it. God
hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son. And that doesn't
just refer to the Lord Jesus coming down here in a body and
speaking with an audible voice, although that was clearly God
speaking to us by His Son. But tonight He speaks to us by
His Son. What that means is to know Christ
is to know God and His will. He speaks to us by revealing
His Son. And he does that in his gospel.
By hearing of Christ, we're hearing from God. And we know his will
that way, by learning who he is. Take my yoke and learn of
me. Learn of me. Somebody said that
what he's saying there, instead of saying, he in these last days
has spoken unto us by his son, they say that that means, literally
in the original language, he has spoken unto us by son. In
other words, the language that God speaks to us in is Son language. And I believe that makes a lot
of sense. He speaks Son to us. Everything God has to say to
us is Christ. And that's about our daily lives,
that's about eternity. Everything He says, He speaks
to us by Son, by Christ. Verse 11 in our text, and Samuel
said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? No, God sent Samuel there to
do something, and it looks like they ruled everybody out. So
Samuel knows there's something else here. And so he asked the
question, and Jesse said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and
behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send
and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither.
Apparently they were going to have a meal together. Probably
the sacrifice that Samuel came to offer. The priest got part
of that and of course the family got part of that and part of
it was burnt. And from either Samuel's part or Jesse's part
they were going to sit down and have a meal together and enjoy
and worship the Lord around the table. That's a good way to worship
him isn't it? We fellowship together and enjoy a meal together. And
he sent and brought him in. And now he was ready. He had
a ready complexion. and with all of a beautiful countenance,
and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint
him, this is he." When God has something to say to you, He knows
how to say it. It's never been unclear, has
it, when God speaks. It's not ambiguous. It's not,
well, I think the Lord's trying to speak to me. If you think
He's trying to speak to you, He ain't said nothing to you
yet. I always want to stress that. If you think maybe, well
you know, I think the Lord maybe. No, that's not Him. Because He's
not unclear about it. He may not tell you yet like
He did with Jesse. He didn't say go anoint David.
He said you anoint the one I show you. And we may have to wait.
We may have to pray. We may have to seek. But when
God speaks, it's going to be clear. You're going to get it. This is interesting now because
when you read the description of David, you wonder why he was
passed over. He's beautiful and of good countenance. And yet he wasn't considered
here. It's very likely that Jesse caused his sons to be considered
in the order that he thought they were most likely to be chosen. If it's not this one, then it
must be this one. And not that one, it must be that one. And
so they go through this process of elimination that was completely
unnecessary. And Samuel had to just come out
and ask him, isn't there somebody else? For David to even enter the picture. Samuel had to press the issue.
And yet David was beautiful and goodly. The language says he
was handsome and of considerable stature. He was a strong man. He's going to be described again
later in the text. He wasn't a wimp. He wasn't somebody
necessarily that you would have passed over. But listen, he wasn't
scrawny, he wasn't weak, he wasn't ugly. Which none of that would
have mattered anyway. If he had been weak and scrawny
and ugly, God can take a man like that and make him strong
and beautiful and capable in all the right ways. That wouldn't
have mattered. But David we need to understand
here is a type of Christ He pictures Christ for us in a thousand ways
in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel and we're going to see that but
we already see Christ in him in that he was infinitely beautiful
and yet he was passed over. He was overlooked. He was ignored. Why was David not considered
until the end? I don't know in human terms.
Maybe because he was the youngest. It does indicate that he was
the youngest of them. The word youngest there though,
young, it means little one. So it's possible that even though
David was strong, he was strong enough to kill a lion and a bear
with his bare hands. He may have been smaller in stature
than his brothers though. We're not giving a comparison.
He may have been smaller than them. But maybe they just didn't
like him. You ever thought about that?
Well, oh boy, everybody likes their son and their brother.
No, they don't. Especially believers. Joseph
was an impressive young man too, but his brothers hated him. They
hated him. Daniel was of an excellent spirit,
but everybody hated him. Often when the Lord blesses somebody,
you remember Cain slew Abel because he was jealous of him because
the Lord blessed him and not Cain. Often when the Lord blesses someone,
which he may already have been doing for David, he was preparing
him. It doesn't make them likable to their world and even to their
own family often. Maybe that had something to do
with it. But what's important is that our Lord was, is, and
always will be altogether lovely. And yet he was despised and rejected
of men. Isaiah said of him in verse 2
of 53, there was no beauty about him that we should desire him.
How can there be no beauty about him and yet he be altogether
lovely? Well, here's the thing. You have
to look on his heart. You have to be able to see his
heart. There was no outward beauty about him. that we should desire
Him. But wait, Chris, we can't look
on the heart. No, but He can reveal it to us. He can reveal
His heart to us, and He does. If we could look on the heart
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know what we'd see? Perfect love for His Father and
for His sheep, for His people, perfect love. Perfect faithfulness
Perfect goodness and kindness and generosity The Lord reveals
these things to us in our Savior and according to the measure
of faith that we have from the Lord We do see in Christ all
of his perfections and we see his will we know his secret will
as he reveals it to us Now look at verse 13 back in
our text then Samuel and 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. So Samuel rose up and went to
Ramah. Remember when Saul was anointed king, it says that the
Spirit of God came upon him later but not at his anointing. He was chosen of the Lord and
he was used of the Lord. But not in love, not as his elect. And the Spirit of God didn't
come upon him. Later it did to give him some
wisdom to do the right thing in certain times, in certain
places, in certain circumstances for the good of the Lord's people.
And it says that Samuel told him he would become another man.
It says that about him. God was going to change him.
Give him some things that he hadn't before. But look at the
difference. When God's Spirit came to David,
he came to stay. The Spirit of the Lord came upon
David from that day forward. We see throughout Saul's life
a couple of times it says the Spirit of the Lord came upon
him. But then it would leave him and then it would come back.
And of course God is never absent from anywhere or anybody and
he's always in control of everybody. But this is God's spirit in a
special way. He gives a spirit of wisdom or
a spirit of direction or guidance or goodness even in those who
have no goodness in themselves. Saul was able to do some good
things relatively speaking, providentially speaking with regard to God's
people because God's spirit came upon him. He was a disaster in
every other way when left to himself. But this is how it is
with his people and we all have the spirit of God in some measure.
But our Lord Jesus Christ has the Spirit of God without measure.
Listen to John 3 30. John the Baptist said in verse
30, he must increase, but I must decrease. And that's what's happening
in our text. As we'll read a little further
in a minute, Saul is decreasing. God said, I've rejected you.
I'm going to raise up one of your neighbors to take your place.
Saul is decreasing and David is increasing. And John said
he must. The son of David must increase.
And I must decrease. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earthly and
speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth.
And no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony
hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath
sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the spirit
by measure unto him. I speak the words of God. We
speak the wisdom of God in the mystery, but I also say some
stupid things. Not from here, I pray. Not from
this pulpit, I pray, because I believe the Lord blesses his
gospel. when we're true to his word and we study and we prepare
and God gives us a message and we deliver it. I believe God
protects them. He just does. Otherwise, you
know, y'all know me well enough to know if I open my mouth for
14 years I've been doing this, you reckon the spirit of the
Lord has something to do with it or I would have run all of
us off? I'd have run myself off by now if God hadn't blessed
me. You say as many things as I've said from a pulpit, You're
going to say some really ignorant, stupid, vile things sooner or
later unless God is in it. But everything the Lord Jesus,
He had the Spirit without measure all the time and without any
degree to it. He was God in human flesh. His
Spirit is God's Spirit. And He said this, I want to read
one verse beyond that. That's clearly what refers to
our text. God giveth him the Spirit without measure. But then
it says, The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things
into his hand. And he that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
The Spirit of the Lord. So you see, David pictures our
Lord in this too. In all believers, the Lord says,
as he is, so are we in this world. And that's one of the ways that's
true. God's spirit is upon us. Only
with Christ, it's without measure. As a man, his very spirit was
God the Holy Spirit. But verse 14 in our text, but
the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit
from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servants said unto
him, Behold now an evil spirit from God, trouble of thee. Now we've seen already that there's
a contrast in the life of Saul. We jumped ahead and looked at
some things that how Saul was different than David. There's
a clear contrast between the two. Saul being the people's
king. They demanded Saul and God gave
them Saul. But God provided David. He's
after his own heart. He gave a king. His chosen anointed
king. And here is the source of that
contrast. God is with one of them and not the other one. God's
spirit was upon David from that day on in a special way. And the spirit left Saul, the
people's king, who reigned by the will of the people. In rejecting
God as their king, they said, we want Saul or somebody like
Saul. And God gave him Saul. But David
is God's chosen. David is God's elect. The clear
picture again is what we read there in John 3.30. He must increase. We must decrease. Man's will
must be dethroned. Saul represents man's will. He
got to come down. Got to come off the throne. You're
done. You're rejected. You can't measure up. Well, you've
got to make a decision for Jesus. Every decision you've ever made
has been godless and selfish and self-righteous and vile.
Quit making decisions and come to Christ. He must increase. You're going to have to come
off the throne. God's going to take you off the throne. And
he set his king, his sovereign on his holy hill of Zion. Christ
is on the throne. All that man's choice and man's
will and man's refusal of God as king produces is a lifetime
of bad decisions and failure. Now it's time for David to reign.
And we're all gonna rejoice. All his people are gonna rejoice
that we, oh, we come down willingly, don't we, when he brings us down. David will reign as a man after
God's very own heart. And though we will still see
in David now, no man can have his history recorded without
us seeing the sinfulness of that man. And God doesn't pull any
punches in that regard. We're going to still see. We're
going to see David's flesh, and we're going to see the sin that's
in every man in David. And yet also, David typifies
and pictures Christ in many, many ways. And may God show us
that too. The Spirit of the Lord departed
from Saul. If Saul was one of God's elect,
that could never happen. Many say that Saul was a believer
because the Spirit of God came upon him and he was a worldly
believer or whatever they want to call it. They come up with
all kinds of ways to justify what they believe. But God's
Spirit don't leave his people. He just don't. He don't. That
could never happen. The Spirit of God came to stay
with David. The Spirit manipulated Saul.
He directed Saul. He gave Saul the earthly wisdom
he needed at the time and then he left him to his own idiocy
at times too. But he manipulated Saul for the
good of his people in spite of Saul. The Spirit of God used
him But listen to John 14, 16. I'll read you these scriptures
because we're going to be short on time tonight. But listen,
he said, the Lord Jesus said, I will pray the father and he
shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever.
The Holy Spirit is taking up residence in you and he'll leave.
He's abiding forever. Even the spirit of truth whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but you know him. For he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. He's talking about the spirit
and then he says, I will not leave you. He says the spirit
won't leave you. And then he says, I will not
leave you. Same thing. It's the spirit of Christ. The
spirit of God is the spirit of Christ. I will not leave you
comfortless. I will never leave you nor forsake
you, he said in another place. So when we see the spirit of
God departing Saul, that tells us what we need to know about
Saul. The Lord said, I will come to
you. So when the spirit left Saul, also an evil spirit came. Now notice that it's not capitalized. When it's talking about the evil
spirit, it's not capitalized. It's not clear now that this
is an actual demon spirit with a name or a satanic spirit or
anything. It was just a spirit of depression.
The word there is terror. The word troubled, it troubled
him, it terrified him. All of a sudden, Saul lost all
of his confidence and all of his nerve and all of his comfort. He was
terrified by this spirit. Whatever it was, came from the
Lord, as everything ultimately does. God himself is not evil
in any sense of the word, that goes without saying, but he did
create evil, he does control evil, he manipulates evil, he
overrules evil for his glory and for the good of his people.
He uses evil. Isaiah 45, 1, listen. Thus saith
the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have
holden, to subdue nations before him. I will loose the loins of
kings, to open before him the two leaved gates, and the gates
shall not be shut. I will go before thee, and make
crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates
of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron. I will give thee
the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places.
But thou mayest know that I, the Lord which call thee by thy
name, am the God of Israel, for Jacob my servant's sake. That's
why I'm going to do it. I'm going to control you. I'm
going to give you victory. I'm going to be with you. I'm going to cause this, and
I'm going to cause that for Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel,
my elect, whom I have even called, I have even called thee by thy
name. I have surnamed thee, though
thou hast not known me. It wasn't because you did something
for me. You don't even know who I am, and I'm going to do everything
for you. I am the Lord and there is none
else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee though thou
hast not known me. I gird you, I control you, I
save you, I bless you. You don't even know who I am
yet. That they may know from the rising
of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me.
I am the Lord, there is none else. I form the light and create
darkness, physical darkness and spiritual darkness. I make peace
and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Amos 3.6 Shall a trumpet be blown
in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil
in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Religious people
say, oh the Lord didn't bring that hurricane and kill all those
people. God wouldn't do that. That was Satan that did that.
God says, I did it. I did it. Listen to Job in 924 of Job. He asked, he said this, the earth
is given into the hand of the wicked. That's what the psalmist
in Psalm 73 was talking about. The Lord's given this earth to
the wicked, hadn't he? He sure has, but not the good
of it. All the stuff that they think
is good and needful, but not the real riches of this world.
But he's in a great sense, he's given this earth into the hand
of the wicked. He covereth the faces of the judges thereof.
He makes it so that the ones that make all the decisions can't
make a decision if their life depended on it. And Job asked this, if not, if
you look at this world and the condition it's in, and some say,
well, where is God? Job said, he's the one doing
it. He's the one that made it the way it is. And if not, then
where and who is he? That's a good question, isn't
it? If God hadn't done this, if he's not the one that gave
the world into the hand of the wicked in a material sense, then
who did? And where is God when that happened? If God is not on the throne while
this world goes completely insane and the judges thereof, their
faces are covered, they can't see right from wrong, they don't
know up from down. The ones making the decisions
in this world are utter disasters. If God didn't make it that way,
then who is God? And where is He? Why does God then allow? Why
does He cause? And to what end does He create
and use evil? Look at the text. We saw it where
we read well ago in Isaiah, for mine and Lex's sake. How's that
helping us? You can rest assured it is. Everything
he does is for his own glory and for the good of his sheep
Look at verse 15 though in our text and Saul's servants said
unto him behold now an evil spirit from God trouble of 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 and 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. Now think of everything that happened in that verse.
God's been teaching David how to play a harp for no telling
how long. Luckily he was sitting there
watching the sheep play and writing songs. He wrote most of the songs. Writing things that glorified
God and God inspired those and gave him the ability to play.
And then some years later, He's anointed as king, but he's not
given the throne just yet. Saul is still on the throne,
but God troubles Saul. His spirit leaves Saul, and the
Lord sends an evil spirit to Saul, a spirit of depression
and trouble and terror. And these people also, his servants,
Saul's servants, why did they think somebody playing a harp
would do any good? I don't know, because God told
them it would. You reckon? Maybe if somebody,
you know, just seems like you need to... That was the way they
figured it out, you know, that's the way they reason among themselves
because God put it in their heart to do that. And look at the way he's described,
let's talk first though, look at... God brings David, why did
God send the evil spirit? Why did he do any of this? God
brings David into the very palace of the king. Something that could
never happen any other way. How is a little shepherd boy
ever going to come into the king's palace? Especially if Saul had
any idea who he was. And that God had anointed him
king in his place. And yet God makes it happen.
David gets to see and learn that which it would seem impossible
that he could ever see and learn. God told Saul, I've rejected
you. I'm going to give the throne to a neighbor of yours whom I've
chosen. And Saul had no idea that that
very man was the one that he called for himself and commanded to be brought to
him. How much does God do? Let me ask you this. How much
does this world do for us by God's design and decree that
they have no idea they're doing? For the sheep of the Lord, they
haven't the least idea that they're doing it for us. In all of their
opposition to God and His purpose, they're serving God's purpose
every moment with everything that they do. Saul clearly had no No love for
God or his word. Samuel said you deliberately
now, I told you plain and simple, and you deliberately rejected
the counsel of God. And yet he's doing the will of
God in everything he does. The secret will of God is being
accomplished. And don't look for that, because
that's happening tonight too, and don't look for it only in
the things that are obvious. You know, the Lord brought us
here tonight. I'd say that's clearly something we can thank
Him for. You reckon? Thank God for bringing
us here to hear God give us a hunger for the Word of God, for the
Gospel, a love for Christ, a desire to hear from Him and of Him and
commune with Him. That's an obvious one. But don't
look for His workings only in the obvious things. When the
early church was persecuted, they went through great trouble
and trial. In Acts 8, it says, Saul was consenting unto the
death of Stephen, and at that time there was a great persecution
against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all
scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria
except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen
to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for
Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and
hailing men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore they
that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
Do you think when they were persecuted and they had to run for their
lives, they were thinking, well bless God, God's spreading his
gospel. Probably not, but that's what he was doing. That's what he was doing. And that redounded to the good
of how many? How many heard the gospel because of that? That
wouldn't happen if God wasn't making things happen. He did
that in my life too. In their efforts to stamp out
his gospel, God caused them to spread it. Why did God send an
evil spirit to Saul? So he would seek relief from
it. Why? To bring David into the palace. David is going to get some before-the-job
training in the palace of the king himself, courtesy of his
God. There's revelation in what they
did about it now, although it was God's purpose. Now think
here, God's purpose, God's accomplishing a good design, but that doesn't
mean everything man is doing here is good. They acknowledged
that God had sent an evil spirit to Saul. But did they seek God
for any remedy for it? Did they go to Samuel, did they
ask Samuel and say, Samuel, I'm terrified, this is killing me. I can't rest, I can't sleep,
I can't find any comfort. Will you speak to God for me,
see what this is about. They didn't seek God's will,
they didn't ask his man, so here we have the evil of men that
know better, they had it within their control, humanly speaking,
to find out God's will, yet they had no desire for it. And then
on the other hand, you have here a chosen child of God with no
power whatsoever in this matter, being drawn and blessed without
even realizing it, without having anything to do with it. And notice Saul's servant's description
of David in verse 18. I've seen the son of Jesse, he's
cunning and playing and he's a mighty valiant man. How did he know that? I don't
know. He'd heard stories. He knew something about him somehow
or another. He's a man of war. There's all kinds of different
speculation about how old David was in this situation and all
that, but it doesn't really matter. Apparently he had fought in some
of the battles that the Israelites had been fighting and proven
himself in them. And he's prudent in matters. He knows what's what
too. He's not just strong. He's not
just a good harp player. He's smart. The Lord's given
him some wisdom. And a comely person. He's just
enjoyable to be around. He's likeable. And here's the key to all of
it. Whether this guy knew what he was talking about or not.
He nailed it on the head here. The Lord's with him. That's why
all these other things. We're true, the Lord's with him. Boy, I tell you what, this is
our Savior. I told you David pictures Christ in a thousand
ways. And here's another, the Lord Jesus Christ pictured here,
even his ruddy countenance echoes the words of Solomon's song in
chapter 5, verse 8, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I'm sick of
love. You know what she's saying there,
the church is saying, you daughters of Jerusalem, if you see the
master, if you see the Lord Jesus Christ, tell him I love him.
Tell him I can't even, I'm sick with love for him. I can't do
without him. And then they say this, what
is thy beloved more than another beloved? O thou fairest among
women. What is thy beloved more than another beloved? Thou dost
so charge us and he answered the church answers this way my
beloved is white and ruddy The chiefest among 10,000 He's
white and red. I'll let you think about that
on your own Now notice this all heard all of that about David
and he was fine with David and He's comely. He's good. He's
smart. He's strong. He's fierce in battle. And our Lord was never persecuted
for being wise or powerful to do miracles or to help people.
Everybody was fine with that. But when Saul finds out that
David has been anointed as king, Saul has a problem. Same with
our Lord Jesus Christ. He can do all the miracles he
wants to do. He can bless everybody and say good things to everybody.
But the minute he claims his sovereign throne rights, everybody's
up in arms. When he started talking as one
having authority and not as the scribes, when he asserted his
rightful claim to the throne, When he said, are you offended
by this? Wait till you see the son of
man on the right hand of the majesty on high. It says, then
they spit on him. Then he was despised. It's the
sovereign Christ that people hate. But nonetheless, he is
sovereign. And the warning goes out to every
sinner, kiss the son, lest he be angry. God's put him on the
throne now. The one whom you despised and
rejected and murdered, God hath made this same Jesus both Lord
and Christ. And there ain't but one way you're
gonna be saved, and that's by him, through faith in his name.
That was the message of the apostles in the book of Acts. You're gonna
have to bow to the one that you spit on. The one that you mocked
as king, you're gonna have to acknowledge him as king. All
right, verse 19, and we'll close with these last few verses. 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. Saul loved David. And he became his armor-bearer.
And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand
before me. Now this is not repetitious. He sent for him before, but then
after a little time, he said, Just let him stay. He's just
going to stay with me now. I pray thee, let him stand before
me, for he hath felt favor in my sight. And it came to pass,
when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took
an harp and played with his hand, So Saul was refreshed and was
well and the evil spirit departed from him. Now I want to just
learn one thing really from this. There's a lot I believe in that
that I'm not completely sure of yet, but here's what I believe
I am sure of. David knew that God had anointed
him king. There wasn't any secret about
that. And yet he comes and serves.
He comes and takes an humble position as armor bearer. He
plays his harp so that the king can be refreshed and encouraged.
He's content to serve. And listen to this from Matthew
2025, but Jesus called them unto him and said, you know that the
princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that
are great exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be
so among you. But whosoever will be great among
you, let him be your minister. and whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of Man came,
not to be ministered unto, but to minister. And here's how he ultimately
ministered, and to give his life a ransom for many. That's how our Lord Jesus Christ
served us, by giving his very life for our sins. David is an
armor-bearer and a musician. Not a high position in the king's
court, but he is an armor-bearer and musician that one day will
slay Goliath and one day will sit upon the throne. And our
Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself. He was a carpenter's
son. And he became obedient. He washed
feet and served God and man. But he was a servant that one
day slew every enemy that there is. Anybody or anything that can
truly be called an enemy, he conquered them that day by the
victory of his cross. And he is a servant that now
sits upon the throne of heaven in this universe and is highly
exalted and given a name which is above every name. And at his
name, every knee shall bow. Isn't it a blessing to bow before
him? When you know who he is, there
is no better way to just feel that you're in the right place.
than to bow at his feet. And we would never do that without
his grace. But what a place to be, at the feet of the master
hanging upon his mercy, him who delights to show mercy. I take
my place there with all my heart by his grace. And I pray we all
do. Let's pray together.