Turn with me, if you would now,
to 1 Samuel chapter 16. 1 Samuel 16. I would like to
show you another beautiful picture from 1 Samuel tonight. A few
weeks ago, we looked at 1 Samuel 30. where Ziklag, the city that David
and his men were living in, that city was burned with fire and
their families were taken captive and David went to get them back.
And David recovered all. That was a beautiful picture.
And then we looked at 2 Samuel 23, where the three mightiest
of David's mighty men, broke through the Philistine army to
get one cup of water from the well of Bethlehem, because that's
what David was thirsting for in his last days. Beautiful picture
that story was. And then we came back to 1 Samuel
16 and saw the beginning of the life of David where God chose
him and anointed him to be the king of Israel. It would be a while before David
was made king, but God acknowledged him to be the one. Now, as I was reading through
these chapters, reading where we were, reading ahead, just
reading, as I was reading through these chapters, some things caught
my attention and they really intrigued me. There were just
some things that I took note of and, And we're puzzled by,
and, uh, I kept reading and I kept reading starting here in chapter
16. And by the time I got to chapter
24, I was amazed. I was just so, um, just delighted
at what I read. I, I got to chapter 24 and I
just said, amen. Amen. I want to show you this
picture tonight. What I saw was such a perfect
picture of our salvation and the Lord's dealings with us.
When I read that, that's me. That's me and that's my Lord's
dealings with me. And I want to show you this picture.
I want to do it like we did it before, where I show you the
story and then I'll show you the picture in the story. Now,
let me start by showing you something here that caught my attention,
all right? It's gonna take me just a minute to show it all
to you, a couple of bits and pieces here. After the Lord told
Samuel right here to anoint David as his king, 1 Samuel 16, verse 13, this is
the last verse we read when we were here. It says, 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. So Samuel rose up and went to
Rhema as soon as Samuel anointed him. As soon as the spirit of
the Lord came upon David, verse 14 says the spirit of the Lord
departed from Saul. From that day forward, it came
upon David and it departed from Saul and it goes on to say, an
evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. You see that? An evil spirit
from the Lord troubled him. Spirit of the Lord, from the
Lord troubled him. Verse 15 says, and Saul's servants... 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. Now
this is the Lord's dealings. Saul doesn't know anything about
Jesse and his boys. Samuel goes to his house and
anoints David, and the Spirit of the Lord is on David and is
removed from Saul, and an evil spirit comes, and Saul's servants
say, we can see that you're troubled. Why don't we find you a man who
can play a harp? And he said, well, bring me one.
And somebody said, well, I saw a boy sitting on a hill watching
sheep. He's a good player. The dealings of the Lord are
so perfect. All right, verse 19, 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 it came to pass
when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul that David took
in heart and played with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and
was well and the evil spirit departed from him. All right
now, this is what puzzled me. This is what grabbed my attention. Saul sent messengers to Jesse
and said, send David your son. Saul sent messengers to Jesse.
Jesse the Bethlehemite has a son. Okay. Send David your son. Jesse
did. David became Saul's armor bearer. Verse 22 says, Saul sent to Jesse
saying, let David stay with me for he's found favor in my sight.
I want him to stay with me. Saul said, Jesse, your son is
special to me. And I want him to be with me
where I am. I want him to be right here. He's a comfort to
me. I want him to be right here.
Okay, now chapter 17 is the story of David and Goliath. And we're
not gonna look at the story of David and Goliath tonight. I
read this, I read that for our scripture reading last Wednesday
night, but we know the story. Okay. Goliath was taunting Israel. David went out alone against
him. God gave David the victory. Okay. Look at chapter 17 verse 55. And when Saul saw David go forth
against the Philistine, against Goliath, he said unto Abner,
the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And
Abner said, as thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the
king said, inquire thou whose son the stripling is. And as
David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took
him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine
in his hand. And Saul said to him, whose son
art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I'm the son
of thy servant, Jesse the Bethlehemite. Saul didn't know who he was.
I thought, well, maybe he played kind of in the back corner and
he didn't see him, or maybe he didn't know who's. So I went
back to 16 and read it. Saul sent to Jesse, send your
son David to me. He's my armor bearer. He comforts
me. I want him to stay with him.
And now he's saying, who are you? Who is that? Who are you?
Isn't that strange? Isn't that intriguing? All right,
I'm gonna remind you of that in a minute when we get to the,
this is the story. When we get to the picture, I'll
remind you of that in a minute. In chapter 18, it says that Saul
wouldn't let David go home anymore. If you look at chapter 18, verse
two, it says, Saul took him that day and would let him go no more
home to his father's house. He wanted David to be a right-hand
man to him. But immediately, I mean immediately,
Saul became jealous of David. Look at verse 5. And David went
out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely. And
Saul set him over the men of war, 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 Roth and the
saying displeased him. And he said, they have ascribed
unto David 10 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 in forward, he became jealous and Saul got
it in his mind that he was going to have David killed. He was
saying, what does he want the kingdom? So he thought the best way to
have him killed was to put him in battle. He made David captain
over a thousand men and he sent David out into battle after battle
after battle, front line of battle after battle and David kept winning. He'd send him out into another
battle and David would win again. Saul tried to deceive David into
thinking that he loved David. He was trying to, you know, in
Saul's mind, keep his enemies close. So he tried to make him
think he was for him and he loved him. And he offered David his
daughter to be David's wife. Her name was Michal. Saul said,
David, if you'll slay a hundred Philistines, I'll give you my
daughter to be your wife. So David went out and slayed
200 Philistines. Chapter 18, verse 28. That was verse 27, it said, David
arose and went, he and his men and slew 200 men, 200 Philistines. Verse 28 says, and Saul saw and
knew that the Lord was with David and that Michal, Saul's daughter,
loved him. And Saul was yet the more afraid
of David. And Saul became David's enemy
continually. Then the princes of the Philistines
went forth, and it came to pass after they went forth that David
behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so
that his name was much set by." That means very precious. David's name became very precious. Chapter 19, verse 1. And Saul
spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they
should kill David. But Jonathan Saul's son delighted
much in David. And Jonathan told David, saying,
Saul, my father seeketh to kill thee. Now therefore I pray thee,
take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret
place, and hide thyself. And I will go out and stand beside
my Father in the field where thou art, and I will commune
with my Father of thee, and what I see, that will I tell thee.
And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said
unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against
David, because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his
works have been to thee were very good. For he did put his
life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought
a great salvation for all Israel. Thou sawest it, and didst rejoice. Wherefore then wilt thou sin
against innocent blood to slay David without a cause? He was
saying, I find no fault in this man. None whatsoever. Why do you want
to kill him? Please don't. That's what Jonathan
is saying. Please don't. Saul told Jonathan
right here that he wouldn't. Saul said, OK, you're right,
I'm not going to. And Jonathan went on his way
hearing that from his father. He thought that's that was his
decision. But look at verse nine, chapter
19, verse nine. And the evil spirit from the
Lord was upon Saul and he sat in his house with his javelin
in his hand. And David played with his hand
and Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin,
but he slipped away out of Saul's presence and he smoked the javelin
into the wall and David fled and escaped that night. Saul
threw a javelin at him. He was sitting there, David's
playing and he's just looking at him and he threw a javelin
and David dodged it and it stuck into the wall and David ran out.
Verse 11. Saul also sent messengers unto
David's house to watch him and to slay him in the morning. And
Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, if thou save not thy
life tonight, tomorrow thou shalt be slain. Saul sent men to David's
house to kill him, but Michal helped him escape. Chapter 20,
verse one. And David fled from Naoth in
Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is mine iniquity? And what
is my sin before thy father that he seeketh my life? What have
I done? Jonathan said to him right here,
he said, I don't believe my father means to kill you. He told me
he was not gonna kill you. But he said, I'll, I'll make
sure I'll make sure they agreed. There was a feast the next day
and David was supposed to be at it. And, uh, they agreed that
David would not come and that Jonathan would tell his father
that he gave David leave to go home to Bethlehem to sacrifice
with his family. And he said, when I tell my father
that I have given you leave and you're not here, we'll see what
his reaction is. If he's fine with it. But if it angers him,
we'll know. When Jonathan told Saul that
he gave David leave and David wasn't there, Saul was so mad,
he threw a javelin at Jonathan, his own son. When Jonathan told
him that, he picked up a javelin and threw it at his own son.
And at that moment, Jonathan knew. He told David, you'd better
run and don't ever come back. So David did. He left, he fled. Chapter 21 tells us that everywhere David went, he
was recognized. Everywhere he went, he was recognized
and word kept getting back to Saul. Telling Saul where David
was. Chapter 21, verse 10 says, and
David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul and went to
Achish, the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said
unto him, is not this David, the king of the land? Did they
not sing one to another of him in dances saying, Saul hath slain
his thousands and David, his ten thousands. That's David. David came up and everybody knew
that's David. Chapter 22, verse one, David
therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave Adalim. And when his brethren and all
his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him
and everyone that was in distress and everyone that was in debt
and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him,
and he became a captain over them. And there were with him
about 400 men." We know who David represents, don't we? Everybody
who was in distress, everybody who was in debt, came to David. David became a captain over them.
Chapter 23, verse seven. And it was told Saul that David
was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered
him into mine hand, for he is shut in by entering into a town
that hath gates and bars. And Saul called all the people
together to war to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his
men. And David knew that Saul secretly
practiced mischief against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest,
bring hither the ephod. Then said David, O Lord God of
Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come
to Kielah to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of
Kielah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down as
thy servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beseech
thee, tell thy servant. And the Lord said, he will come
down. Then said David, will the men
of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the
Lord said, they will deliver thee up. He will come down. they will deliver thee up." And
they did. They told Saul, we know where
he is. Chapter 24, verse 1, And it came to pass, when Saul was
returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying,
Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi. Then Saul took three
thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David
and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. And he came to
the sheep coats by the way, where was a cave and Saul went in to
cover his feet. Saul went into this cave to sleep,
to lay down for a minute. And David and his men remained
in the sides of the cave. David and his men were already
in that cave. hiding in that cave. And Saul
came in and went to sleep. Verse four, and the men of David
said unto him, behold, the day of which the Lord said unto thee,
behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou
mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David
arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privately. All the
men said, David, the Lord has delivered him into your hands
as he said he would. There he is, take him. So David
went over and he cut off the bottom of his robe. Verse five,
and it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him
because he had cut off Saul's skirt. And he said unto his men,
the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master,
the Lord's anointed. He said, this is God's king that
God has placed in authority for this moment in time. He said, God, the Lord forbid
that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed
to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed
of the Lord. So David stayed his servants
with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave
and went on his way. David also arose afterward and
went out of the cave. Saul woke up, walked out and
David walked out behind him. And David cried after Saul saying,
my Lord, the King. And when Saul looked behind him,
David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself. And David said to Saul, Wherefore
hearest thou men's words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt? Please don't listen to men saying
that I seek your hurt. Verse 10, Behold, this day thine
eyes have seen how the Lord had delivered thee today into mine
hand in a cave, and some bade me kill thee, but mine eye spared
thee. And I said, I will not put forth
mine hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Moreover,
my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in mine hand,
for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe and killed thee not. I went right up to you and cut
the skirt off of your robe and I did not kill you. Know thou
and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine
hand, and I have not sinned against thee. yet thou huntest my soul
to take it. The Lord judged between me and
thee, and the Lord avenged me of thee, but mine hand shall
not be upon thee. As saith the proverb of the ancients,
wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, but mine hand shall not
be upon thee. After whom is the king of Israel
come out? After whom dost thou pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea? He's calling himself that. What
he's saying is, I am a worm and not a man. That's Psalm 22. Verse 15. The Lord therefore be judge and
judge between me and thee and see and plead my cause and deliver
me out of thy hand. Verse 16 says, and it came to
pass when David had made an end of speaking these words unto
Saul that Saul said, is this thy voice my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice
and wept. It broke him. After David said what he said,
it broke him. It utterly broke him. Now, this was not a true spiritual
conversion. The next chapters reveal that
to us. But this is a picture of a true spiritual conversion. What we're about to read represents
the result of a wicked sinner seeing how his life has been
spared and who it is that spared it. We're about to read the result
of a sinner having his eyes open to this, this being revealed
to him. I'm almost done, but let me catch up the picture with
the story. And then we'll finish reading
the story and the picture together, okay? David represents Christ. And Saul represents God's sinful
people. Saul represents me and you in
our natural wicked condition before God. Tonight's message
began with an evil spirit troubling Saul. And is that not man by
nature? David was the one who comforted
him. Saul had no idea who he was. And for a child of God, who is
a wretched sinner in his nature, our Lord Jesus Christ has been
with us. And He has helped us, and He
has comforted us, and He has led us since before we ever even
knew who He was. All the days of our life. No
idea. Something would happen, He'd
be right there with us. He'd strengthen us, He'd pick us back up. No
idea who God is. Just like Gomer, you know the
story of Gomer? Hosea took perfect care of her. She had no idea it was him. Our story tonight then told us
of this great victory that David won for all of God's people,
Israel, in the story of Goliath. He brought liberty to them. He
defeated their enemy. He did it alone. By himself,
he defeated all of God's people, all of their enemy, which was
sin. He defeated it alone. Saul had no idea who he was.
For God's people, their war was over. Their battle with sin, it was
fought on the cross of Calvary and it was one. It was finished
by God's anointed King, the son of David, Christ Jesus, the Lord
over done finished before they ever even knew who he was. No
idea who he was. Even the saints in the old Testament,
he was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Chapter 18 told us that Saul
became angry and jealous over David, saying, what does he want,
the kingdom? All of us, in our natural flesh,
in our wickedness, all of us have said, I will not have that
man reign over me. I'll reign over him, but he's
not gonna reign over me. That's called being at enmity
against him. That's what it's called, being
his enemy. For the remainder of the story,
Saul trying to kill David represents us, by wicked hands, trying with
all of our might to crucify and slay the Lord of glory. The one who knew no sin, what
has he done? No spot, no blemish, I find no
fault in him. That's the one that all of God's
people cried, crucify, crucify. That's where God's people are
when he reveals himself to them. That's where they are. That's
the hard, hateful wickedness of the flesh that he finds a
man when he reveals to them who he really is and whose life is in whose hands. Saul thought David was in his
hands. David just found out. No, Saul
just found out, I'm in his hands. And all of God's people find
out in that moment that even though they were spared, they
shouldn't have been. They didn't deserve to be spared. But in
his goodness, this is what broke him. You know what will break
a child of God? You know what will lead a child
of God to repentance? The goodness of the Lord. It was His goodness. It was His goodness. In His goodness,
He loved us even though we were enemies. He humbled Himself. He bowed Himself down. He delivered
Himself for us to make peace. Peace. with us, for us. When that kindness and when that
goodness reaches the heart of one of God's own, and that's
what happens, it reaches the heart. When that happens, I'm
telling you, it slays a sinner. It breaks the sinner. That goodness
leads them to repentance. A changed mind about this whole
thing, that's what repentance is. And this is what all of God's
people cry. This is what they acknowledge
before God concerning Christ and concerning themselves. See
if this doesn't bless your heart. Verse 16. And it came to pass
when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul,
that Saul said, is this thy voice? My son, David, he heard his voice. And Saul lifted up his voice
and wept. And he said to David, thou are
more righteous than I. You are more righteous than I
am. You're the righteous one, I'm
not. He said, thou art more righteous
than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded
thee evil. All I've ever given you is evil,
and all you've ever given me is good grace. It's only been grace from you.
Verse 18, and thou hast showed this day how that thou hast dealt
well with me, for as much as when the Lord had delivered me
into thine hand, you didn't kill me. For if a man find his enemy,
will he let him go well away? Wherefore the Lord reward thee
good for that thou has done unto me this day. He said, may all
the glory be unto you. Because for my great sin, you've
rewarded me with nothing but grace, grace, kindness, verse
20. And now behold, I know well that
thou shalt surely be king. Isn't it amazing that Saul said
this? He said, I know you're the king. I'm not, you are. Verse 20, now
behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king and that
the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand. You're
the one who reigns. You're the sovereign. You're
the one seated on the throne. Verse 21, now watch this. He
said, swear now therefore unto me by the Lord that thou will
not cut off my seed after me and that thou will not destroy
my name out of my father's house. Oh, he said, I'm begging for
mercy from you. Please make a covenant concerning
me. That's what he said. Please remember
me and remember my house. From the moment that the sovereign
reveals himself, God's people are covenant mercy
beggars. From the very moment that he
reveals himself, God's people are covenant mercy beggars from
that day forward. And all who ask for mercy in
that covenant, receive it. All who ask. We know well, think
about this. We know well about David's covenant
with Jonathan. All right? Well, David also made a covenant
with Saul. He made a covenant with Saul.
And there's a covenant for every single one of God's people. Every
sinner who needs a covenant and gets a covenant from the game.
Verse 21, he said, swear now therefore unto me by the Lord
that thou will not cut off my seat after me and that thou will
not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swear
unto Saul. In the story of Mephibosheth,
which we just heard last Wednesday night. Okay. David said in that
story, David said, is there any left of the house of Saul that
I may show kindness to him? David made a covenant with Saul
and he kept his covenant. He kept his covenant. And to
all of God's people, because Christ could swear by no greater,
he swore by himself. And he said, I promise you, you
sure don't deserve it. You're certainly unworthy of
it, but you have my word. Because of my humility, because
of my mercy, because of my grace, because I gave blood when you
gave sin, you have my word. Verse 22, and David swear unto
Saul, I love this, and Saul went home. Alive, in peace, in quietness, Saul
went home. And so will all of God's people.
One of these days real soon, we're all gonna get to go home.
We're all on our way there right now. Verse 22, David swear unto
Saul and Saul went home, but David and his men got them up
unto the hold, the rock, the cliff to the rock. That's where
we will find our savior and find our salvation in the cliff of
the rock. May we find it. May God reveal
to us what that picture's right there. May God reveal mercy and
grace in a covenant from the King. All right, let's all stand
together.