Maybe the Lord will take it from
here to here one day. All right, 2 Samuel 23. Brother
Marvin announced his text this morning. My knees buckled a little
bit. He didn't have time to. Thinking
about his message this morning, he didn't have time to look at
the bulletin in which My text was announced, and he announced
he was going to preach from this, and I thought, well, hmm. But
there's a token of good. There was a token for good. Show
me a token for good, David said in one place. And that was a
token for good to me that this is the message I'm going to preach
tonight, because he preached on the second half. I'm going
to preach on the first half. As he stated this morning, let
me Let me reiterate that Jesus Christ is the key that unlocks
the word of God. Jesus Christ is the light that
opens up these dark passages of scripture to our understanding. Christ is the answer. to all
of the mysteries which have been kept hidden from the foundation
of the world. Christ is the key that unlocks
those doors, those mysterious doors. The world is a disastrous-looking
place, a chaotic place when not seen in the light of God's purpose
in Christ. Are you with me? Are you following
me? Are we here? The world is a disastrous looking
and chaotic place when not seen in the light of God's purpose
in Christ. Everything is out of sync. Everything
is out of key when it's not tuned to middle C. But when Christ
is clearly revealed, when Christ is clearly seen as the sum and
the substance, the preeminent One, the Lord and ruler, the
reason for it all. Then the mysteries of God are
revealed unto babes. And one of these glorious pictures
of Christ that are hidden in the Old Testament is this story
of David. We've been doing this series, this series on the son of David.
This is the third part. And we've seen so clearly, I
hope the Lord has blessed you in it, but we've seen so clearly
how that David is a type or a picture, a representative of Jesus Christ.
You know, had the Jews really studied carefully their beloved
David, their beloved king, their cherished king, they loved David.
They talked of him much. They knew that the Messiah was
to be the son of David. That's who they looked for. If
you'll go through the scripture, the New Testament, and look at
various times when the Lord healed different people, Most of them
cried out to him, like the leper, like the blind man, like the
woman, Jesus, thou son of David. That's how they signified that
he was the Christ, distinguished him as the Christ. The Jews knew
this, that the Christ was to be the seed of David. Had they
really studied the life of their beloved and cherished King David,
Upon seeing and hearing and observing the life of Jesus Christ and
his person, they would have known this is he. Had they really studied
David and looked into the life of David, they would have seen
that Jesus Christ is the only one who could be the son of David. Oh yeah, we do, by God's grace. But no, the Scripture says in
2 Corinthians 3, their minds were blinded. And until this
day even, until this day, the same veil remains untaken away
in the reading of the Old Testament. And Paul said, though that veil
is taken away, it's removed in Christ, when you see Christ. But blessed are our eyes, we
see. We see Christ. My, my. Blessed are your ears. You hear
messages of Christ. Not everybody's hearing them. As a matter of fact, very few
people are. Just little remnants here and there. Blessed are your
ears. You hear message after message. All right, here in 2 Samuel,
chapter 23, it says, beginning with verse 1, Now, these be the last words
of David, the last words of David. Now, these are not the last words
in the sense that these were the last words that David spoke
while on earth, but it's speaking of 2 Samuel 22. That is, for
the most part, is Psalm 18 that we read. 2 Samuel 22 is Psalm
18. This is the reason many believe
that that was the last psalm that David actually penned while
on this earth. After the Holy Spirit reveals
this 2 Samuel 22 to us, now he says those are the last words
of David, or the last inspired words. These be the last words
of David. David. It says David. We saw last Wednesday night how
that the word David, the name David means beloved. Beloved
David, the son of Jesse, the beloved one. David. Was called love by the father.
by God. God said he sought him a man
after his own heart, and he loved him. He was loved by God, a man
after God's own heart. He was loved by his people. David
was loved by the men of Judah. They loved him dearly, as they
should. David was a kind, gentle, tender, merciful,
and gracious man, a type of Christ. And he was certainly loved by
Jesse, his father. Jesse loved David, his son. Well, this is a picture of Christ,
the son of David, who is called the Beloved One, the Beloved
Son of God. Is he loved by God? Oh, you better
believe it. God said three times, the Father
said three times from heaven, this is my son, the Beloved One. I love him. I love him dearly.
And Barnard said he loved him so much that he decided to have
a whole lot of children just like him. And he predestinated
all of the people that he was to save to be just like this
one son, because he loved him above all others. And God said
it three times. He's loved by the father and
by God himself. He's the son of David. He's the
Christ. He's the beloved one. He's loved
by the people. We studied Solomon's Song, chapter
5, and they asked the woman there, the Shulamite maiden, You remember
them asking her, what is thy beloved more than the other beloveds? And this is the answer of the
church. This is the very heartfelt feelings
of God's people for the Christ. This is the bride speaking of
her groom. What is my beloved more than
others? Why, he's white. He's ruddy. He's the cheapest
of ten thousand. Oh, eyes like doves and so forth.
And that's the language. of the bride of Christ toward
their beloved. He's loved by his people. He's loved by his people. And
it says here that David is the son of Jesse, the son of Jesse
the Bethlehemite. Now, this depicts, this shows
me, this tells me of David's humble origins and his meager
David was a lowly shepherd boy coming from a town called Bethlehem. It was a town of no significance,
a very small Middle Eastern town. And David was, as it were, a
root out of a dry ground, a fruitless place, a rod of the stem of Jesse,
just a small part of a big family. And Bethlehem, as I said, was
a small and a humble place. But all of this speaks of David's
greater son. All of this speaks of the son
of David, Micah 5.2. Anybody remember that scripture?
But thou, Bethlehem, Ephratah, though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been
from of old. and from everlasting. Out of
Bethlehem came David, all right, but the son of David, the Christ,
came from Bethlehem. Christ Jesus the Lord, the son
of David, who was the son of Jesse, out of Bethlehem, an insignificant
and lowly place. And Christ, like David, Christ
had a lowly birth and very meager beginnings, didn't it? beginnings. He was a son of a
lowly carpenter, supposedly. They thought he was a son of
a working-class man. He was raised in a town called
Nazareth. Now, Nazareth was a despicable
place to the Jews and to the rest of the world. I read where
that Nazareth was a smelly place, a place that had even a foul
odor about it, a despicable place. And that's the reason they said,
can anything good come out of Nazareth. Can anything good,
God, dwell there for a while? Out of Nazareth, Christ was the
lowly man from Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth. And he had a lowly appearance,
an uncomely appearance, probably like David. When David came in
from that field, when Samuel went to anoint He probably was
very dirty. He probably was very, somewhat
haggard looking by being out in the field and so forth. But
he was God's anointed. He didn't look like much to the
world. After all, Samuel thought it was the other boys, didn't
he? And Christ was so uncomely in his appearance and so lowly
and humble But the Jews, upon hearing his claims to be who
he was, they were indignant at him. They were incensed. They were indignant. They were
embarrassed by his claims to be the Christ. Our Christ is
not going to look like this lowly son of a carpenter. No, our Christ
is going to come into town riding on a white horse with a crown
on his head. Oh, he's like that tabernacle,
though. If you could see on the inside, he's golden. He shines
forth, shines bright. David was the shepherd of the
sheep. David was raised the last of
seven boys, and he worked in the field. David was probably—I
don't see any indication to tell me otherwise—but David was probably
an uneducated man. I don't see anywhere in the Scriptures
where it says David had any formal training in school. Probably
an uneducated man, yet David was a brilliant man. He was a
poet, he was a writer, composer of music, he was brilliant, he
was an intelligent, sharp man. He became the king without any
formal education. Well, it was said of Christ,
how could this man, having no learning, with no learning, speak
with such authority? How could this lowly son of a
carpenter speak like this? How can he speak like a master
in Israel? Because he is. He's the master
of the seas. He's the very omniscient one
who teaches all the teachers. That's how. And as the sinless son of man,
Christ was a man, yeah, but he was a sinless man. And this is
all together different. As the sinless son of man, he
had to be the perfect orator. Though he spoke simply, though
he spoke mostly in one, two, and three-syllable words and
didn't speak in such a way that everybody could not understand
him, yet he spoke in simple, understandable words. Yet he
had to be the perfect orator. Why? Because sin is what causes
all of our problems, every bit of our physical maladies and
afflictions. Men, we stutter and stammer,
don't we? Huh? In our speech. We're at
a loss for words. Even Paul said that his speech
was contemptible, didn't it? And base, his speech. That's
what people—his letters, he writes a mean letter, they said, but
his speech, his bodily presence in his speech is contemptible.
He's not a very good speaker, but not this man. As a matter
of fact, they said about this man, never man speaks like this
man. Why? He's the sinless man. There's
a difference. He's the sinless man. And it
said here, he's the son of Jesse, and it said, look at this, and
the man who was raised up on high. The man raised up on high. Turn
with me to Psalm 80. Psalm 80. He's the man. The man. They said that of David,
the man, as if to say, as if to make it sound that David was
one of the only true men who ever lived. The man. The man. David was a man, yes.
He was a man, even as a youth. That's what they said. Do you
remember reading that back there? That's what they said of David.
He's a mighty man, a warrior. They said that of him when he
was a twenty-year-old boy. a valiant man. David was a man even as
a youth, so was Christ. That twelve-year-old boy in the
temple was confuting, refuting, answering questions of those
most learned doctors. He was a man among children,
even as a boy. But he was the man, the son of
David. As we've said before, the son
of David, the Christ, is the only man who ever lived. Pilate said it right, didn't
he? When Christ paraded before him, what did he say when he
paraded Christ before the people? He said, Behold the man. This could never be rightly said
of any other man who ever lived. Adam failed miserably, didn't
he? He was a man. Yes, he was an upright man, but
he failed miserably, and he proved himself to be a mouse. But when
Christ was paraded before all of God's people to see, And Pilate,
under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, if you will, said, There's
the man. And Peter said it from Pentecost,
Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God. The man. Everything about the natural
man is altogether abnormal, is unmanly. Everything about us
is permeated with sin and iniquity. There's nothing in us. There's
nothing in us to recommend us to God as being men and women
that God should take notice of. No, we're worms. We're not man. Sin has so permeated our minds,
our hearts, everything about us. We don't deserve to be called
men and women, but rather beasts. Not this man. He was man at his
best state, but he wasn't vain. He wasn't vanity. He was man
the way God intended for man to be. He was. The man, the only normal man,
perfect in his heart, his mind, his body, his soul, express image
of God Himself. The man. Look here what God says
about him in verse seventeen of Psalm eighty. He said, Let
thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man
whom thou hast made strong for thyself. God made a man. All
the men of all the ages paraded and lived this life on the earth.
And God had to say of every one of them, Miserable failure. No good. Unacceptable. Disapproved. God said, I'm going
to make a man the way a man ought to be. I'm going to be a man. I'm going to come down and take
a body and show you how a man is supposed to live before God.
And he did. Didn't he? The man. The man. The sinless son of man.
God made himself strong as a man. The son of his right hand. God
hath highly exalted this man, given him authority over all
things. Now listen to this. This is an
interesting point. Psalm 2, verse 6 says, I have
set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. He
said, this is my son, my son. God hath highly exalted a man
to the place of all authority. He's the head over the universe.
A man! He's the head over all principalities
and power. A man sits on the throne of glory. A man! Albeit a glorified one,
but a man. Now, he's the head over angels? One of the old writers said this,
he said, surely this must have been the reason for the heavenly
revolt. When Satan, Henry, when Satan
got a hold of this, that God was going to set a man over top
of him, he said, I won't have it. I won't have this man to
reign over me. I'm the highest of angels, I'm
the archangel, I will exalt my throne to the throne of glory."
God said, you won't, you'll bow to a man. And this is the reason Satan
tried to crush him the whole of his life, didn't he? I'll
destroy God's plan, but what did God do? Though Satan thought
he had bruised him and got him out of the wood, got him in the
grave now. No, you haven't, Satan. You've lifted him up to that
place of glory and authority. You've now crowned him king,
and you're going to bow to him from now on." And one of the old writers said,
surely this must have been the reason for the heavenly revolt. A man? No, we can't bow to a
creature. A man? And isn't this what Satan's
children say? He said that you are of your
father, the devil, and the works of your father. That's what you
do. He was a liar from the beginning. You're doing the same thing that
Satan did. What did he do? He said, I'll
not have this man to reign over me. They won't have him. They
wouldn't have God's Christ. They wouldn't bow to God's man,
would they? But yes, God has raised up a man, the Son of Man. He's called that by more than
any other title. He calls himself that by more
than any other title. The son of man. Significant. Based upon Psalm 80 verse 17. And it says he raised him up
on high. Terry, what does that say to you? He raised him up
on high. Raised him up. He was first,
he was lifted up on the cross, John 3, 14. If the Son of Man
be lifted up, he'll draw all men to himself, right? As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in him
shall have everlasting life. And if he be lifted up, he'll
draw all of God's people to him by the way of the cross. He lifted
him up. He lifted him up from the grave.
He went down into the grave, but God raised Him, didn't He?
Lifted Him up. And He lifted Him up. He raised
Him up to the throne of glory and seated Him at the right hand
of the Father. And He lifted Him up by giving
Him a name as a result of all this, by giving Him a name which
is above every other name. Lord, though a man, yet Lord. This is why the Jehovah The Russellites
won't have it. Same thing. We can't worship
a man. We worship Jehovah. You worship
Jehovah, you'll worship a man. You'll worship the God-man. You'll
worship Jesus, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at it
again, verse 1, our text. It says, He was the man who God
raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob. The anointing. God raised him
up and then anointed him king. You remember back in second Samuel
sixteen verse one. He said. God said I've provided
me king. You know, the people, they made
themselves a king and they made Saul. Saul was good to look to
and tall, dark, and handsome. And the people made Saul their
king, wanted Saul. Well, he wasn't God's king, never
was. God always had a king from the very beginning. God knew
all along in his purpose, in his decrees, he knew that David
was his king. He was just waiting in his good
providence and his good time to reveal his king. I've provided
me a king." God's always had a king. Christ is the everlasting
king. Always has been. From the very
foundation of the world. And God provided him. One day
God revealed him as his king. But this wasn't a king like unto
the sons of men, but one, as old Nebuchadnezzar said about
looking into that furnace, like unto the Son of God. Not one after man's estimation
of how a king ought to be, his outward perception. He said,
oh no, he said, the old Samuel, don't look on his outward countenance.
That's not the way God sees it. God's looking in a different
place, looking on the heart. And you ought to look at his
heart. Like we mentioned about that tabernacle in the wilderness.
Had the Gentiles or the Philistines or the Moabites or whatever been
riding along and saw that plain brown tent in the wilderness,
they wouldn't have thought much about it, wouldn't they? We don't
see anything. What's everybody so excited about? What is everybody
milling around this little tent for? We're going in and out,
and everybody's getting carried away and worshiping and praying.
We don't see anything so beautiful about that tent. Looks like any
other tent to me. Oh, you ought to go inside. You
ought to go inside. But you have to be called. You
can't just rush up and go on in there. A man after God's own heart,
when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire in the
Scriptures. But on the inside, if God allows
you, if he takes away this veil, like that young man before Elijah,
Elijah's servant, the Lord opened his eyes, as you may see, and
he saw the host of heaven, the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. You remember when Jesse paraded
his sons before Samuel the prophet? I venture to say that most of
them were goodly to look to, tall, handsome, dressed for success,
alive and the rest of them. His fine older sons. Jesse paraded
his fine, the finest, his older sons, the elder sons. They were
good candidates. They were good candidates for
king. And Jesse thought so. That's my boy. That's my oldest
boy. Surely he's the one. That's my firstborn son. He looks
most like me. Probably what Jesse thought.
But Samuel said, is that all of them? After all of them came
back. He said, is that it? Is this all the boys you got?" And Jesse said, no, but the last,
he's the least. He's the last, he's the youngest.
If Jesse had thought what he said, he'd have realized, he'd
have remembered that God the Elder should serve the young.
Right? The first should be last, and
the last first. And Jesse said, well, he's not kingly material.
The rest of the, look, let's look again. No, it's not them. You got another one? Yeah, but
he's not of the caliber or station of these other boys. They're
successors in life. Well, he's a businessman, an
old minidab or whatever their names were. He's a politician,
and these are kingly material here. He's the best we've got
to offer. He's not God's king. And old Jesse said, well, I got
one more. And Samuel said, you better bring him in. We're not
going to sit down until he comes in. That's him. And later on,
the prophet anointed David, the sweet psalmist, the king. And
Christ, the second Adam, is the Lord from glory, and as I quoted,
though we see no beauty in him, that we should desire him, this
simple carpenter, yet this is the Lord's anointed. This is
the Lord's anointed. And Jesse could have argued on.
He could have carried this on. He did argue. He said, the boy, he's just a shepherd. Shepherd. Samuel may have thought,
I recall another shepherd who God kept out to pasture for a
while. Moses. He turned out to be a pretty
good one. But Jesse said, he's just a shepherd. He's out there
right now keeping sheep. Well, does he do a good job,
Jesse? Yeah, he's never lost one. That's the kind of king
Israel needs, isn't it? He's out there watching the flock,
Jesse thought. He's a dreamer. He's a poet. Well, all he does, Samuel, is
sit out under the stars and gaze at the stars and pray and play
his guitar and sing and compose all of these songs and things.
He's a dreamer. He's a poet. He's God's anointed. And this is the reason here,
and look at verse one again, this is the reason he's called
the sweet psalmist of Israel. Now this is the title of my message.
Let's dwell here a little bit. The sweet psalmist of Israel.
I think you've got to get a blessing out of it. Now David, David was
the man who was purported to be the writer and the composer
of the Psalms. It says here that David was the
sweet psalmist of Israel, the sweet psalmist of Israel. David was well known for his
poetic and musical ability. He could play cunningly upon
a harp, a ten-string one at that. He was a good musician, a skillful
musician, well known for his poetic skill and expertise. Yet, it was David's son who truly
wrote the psalms. David didn't write the psalms. It was David's son, the Christ,
who should be called the sweet psalmist in Israel. Let me show
you that. Look at verse 2 with me. Verse
2 and 3. The Spirit, capital S, the Holy
Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. spake through me." The Word of
God, the Spirit of Christ, spake through me. David said, I was
just taking dictation. Who is that rock? Paul said,
that rock is Christ. He's the rock of Israel. Notice
with me three things. I want you to notice three things
about Christ, who is the sweet psalmist in Israel. We look at
David as he is a type of Christ. Three things and I'll quit. David
here. I want you to notice with me. First of all, he's the composer.
David is the composer. Secondly, David is the subject. Thirdly, David is a singer. David's the composer, he's the
subject, and he's the singer. Now, David was purported to be
the composer of these songs, yet it was inspired by Christ
himself was the composer. The Word of God is of Christ
the Word, and they're the words of Christ. The Word of God is
the Word of Christ. Listen to this in John 8 verse
31. Christ said to those Jews which
believed on him, If you continue in my word, Whose word? My word. Then you are my disciples indeed. Listen to this. He said, if the
sun therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
He said to these carping Jews, he said, I know you're Abraham's
seed, I know that physical seed, but you seek to kill me because
my word hath no place in you. The word of Christ, he said down
in verse forty-six, he said, which of you convinces me of
sin? If I say the truth, if I speak the truth, the truth of God,
the word of God, why don't you believe me? He said in one place,
the word that I speak, it's life, it's spirit, it's life. The word,
every word out of his mouth was divine. He said, he that is of
God hears God's words. Now, Terry, wasn't he saying
in the same breath there that the words I speak, the very Word
of God? He said, You therefore hear them
not because you're not of God. The Word of God is the Word of
Christ, and it speaks of Christ who is the Word. As I said, David
merely took dictation. The Psalms aren't the Psalms
of David or of Moses or of... What's his name? Asaph. Thank you. The Psalms of Christ. He wrote them. Secondly, David
is the subject matter of many of the Psalms. You look in the
Psalms, you look into them, you'll see the life of David, you'll
see his mind, his heart, you'll see his character. That's the
reason men, Rick, that's the reason men mistake Psalms like
Psalm 18 for the words of David. They don't see it as being the
son of David, do they? They think that that's David
talking about himself. Well, Christ is the subject of
all the Scriptures, and he's the object of all worship. He's
the subject. You remember, you quoted it this
morning, how that he began in the Psalms and the Prophets and
the Psalms and the Law and so forth, and he expounded all things.
He said all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms concerning men.
In the Psalms? We heard one man say that he
professes to be a believer. He said, when I read this, he
said the Psalms are boring, didn't he? The Psalms are boring. Oh my. The Word of God is concerning
the Word of God. You know who that is? The Word
made flesh. The Word of God is concerning
His life, His works, His person, His character. The Word of God. As someone said, this is a hymn
book. An H-I-M book. A hymn book. This is His story, not just history. his story. I want you to note
with me, finally, that David not only, David as a type, not
only composed the Psalms, and not only was David the subject
matter of the Psalms, but David sang the Psalms. Turn with me
to Psalm 7. David sang the Psalms. Throughout the Psalms, you'll
read where David recorded of himself singing the Psalms. Psalm 7, verse 17, says this. He said, I will praise the Lord
according to his righteousness and will sing praise to the name
of the Lord Most High. Psalm 7, verse 17. Now turn with me over to 1 Samuel,
chapter 16. Jesus Christ is that sweet psalmist
who sang. Here's a perfect type of Christ.
We studied this last Wednesday, and I want you to look at this.
This is glorious. I tell you, this is glorious.
If you've never seen this before, this is glorious. It speaks of
Christ in no uncertain terms. Look at 1 Samuel 16. Christ is
the sweet psalmist of Israel who soothes the heart." Now,
remember how we said that Saul represented the natural man,
the unregenerate man, Saul? And how the son of David is Christ,
and how Jesse represents God? Don't you look at this? This
is beautiful. Verse 14, "...Now the Spirit
of the Lord departed from Saul." Do you remember how God kicked
out Saul, kicked out Adam from the garden? Kicked him out. He
said, depart from me. And an evil spirit from the Lord
troubled him. Who's that? That's principalities
and powers, rulers of the darkness. That's Satan himself. That's
a roaring lion who goes about seeking him. He troubles mankind,
doesn't he? He troubles us, all of us. And
Saul's servants, now this is servants men, the servant of
men. Paul said, We are your servants
for Christ's sake. This is the preachers of the
gospel. They said unto him, An evil spirit from God troubles
you. Let our Lord command thy servants which are before thee
to seek out a man who is a cunning player on the harp. And it shall come to pass when
the evil spirit from God is upon thee that he shall play with
And you'll be well. And God Almighty, through the
preaching of the gospel, reveals to the sons of men a man who's
a cunning player on the heart. And if he plays that sweet gospel
music to your heart, it'll be well with your soul. And Saul
said unto his servants, well, get him quick. Provide me now
a man that can play well. I don't want one of these pluckers. I want a cunning man, a skillful
musician that can bring him to me. I don't even know who he
is. I don't know the first way to
go about finding him. Do you know who he is? Can you
tell me who he is? Bring him to me. Tell me about this man. Of whom does the prophet speak?
Of himself or somebody else? Tell me," the eunuch said to
Philip. Then answered one of his servants,
Behold, I've seen him, a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite. You know, Jesse means, Jesse
is a root of the word God, Jehovah, the existent one. He's the son
of God. He's the Bethlehemite. Bethlehem,
as you said this morning, means the house of bread. He's the
bread of life. He comes from the house of bread.
He comes from heaven. And Christ said, Moses didn't
give you that bread, but my Father gave you that bread, which is
from heaven, the Bethlehemite. Christ, the Son of the living
God, the Bethlehemite. And look at it. He's cunning
in playing. He's a mighty, valiant man, sinless one. He's a man
of war. He's a man of war and prudent
in his matters. Oh, he's wise, prudent in his
speech. Oh, no man spoke like this man.
and a comely person, and the best of all, Saul, the Lord is
with him." Look at this. Verse 19, Saul
sent messengers unto Jesse. He cried unto Jesse, the father
of David, and said, Send me, David. Send your son, would you? He's with the sheep. And look at this. And Jesse of
all things put David on an ass, the coat, the foal of an ass,
and sent with him of all things bread and wine and a lamb." Go
down there to Saul. Take bread, take wine, make sure
you take a lamb. Sent by David his son unto Saul,
and David came to Saul and stood before him. And he loved him
greatly. Saul, upon seeing this glorious
man sent by Jesse, a picture of Christ, the Son of God, if
God ever shows you who he is and he sets him forth before
you, you'll love him greatly. And he'll become your armor-bearer. See that? Your sin-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying,
Let David stay here. Let him stay around. Isn't that
what the disciples said? Lord, don't go. Stay with us. He said, I'll never leave you
nor depart from you. Let him stand before me. Isn't
that what we say to God? Let Christ stand before me. Stand
as my representative before me to stay your wrath. He's found
favor in my sight. Christ finds favor in our sight,
let alone the Father's. And it came to pass, look at
this, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul. And by the
way, Satan's God's devil, isn't it? Yeah, he is. Read this to
some of these pinheads out there. This evil spirit from God. And
when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took
a harp and played with his hand, and Saul was refreshed. and was
well, and the evil spirit departed from him." Marvelous. So David is a sweet psalmist,
and oh, he could play and sing. Oh, could he play and sing. I'd like to have heard it. I'd
like to have heard it. David's son, Christ the Lord,
in the days of his flesh, do you know that he sang? And you know something? Just
like when I was talking about him speaking, our Lord had to
have had perfect pitch. Oh, yes. He had no sin. Right? As I said, sin is the
cause of all of our problems. You missed notes, Sherry, because
sin. If you were a perfect human being, you'd never miss a note.
We're flat, Linda, we're flat, and we ought to be sharp, and
we're sharp, and we ought to be flat. We squeak, we croak,
we get frogs in our throat. Why? Sin. Not this man. He had no sin. He had no sin. What must his voice have been
like? Huh? Jeanette? When he led his disciples in
singing in that upper room, surely they must have gone away from
that place going, no man sang like this man. I bet his voice
was heard above the rest of them. What do you want to bet? Why? You know they say a good
I've consulted a few professional singers. You'd never know it,
but I have. They say that good singing comes
from the diaphragm, right? We have to sing from the diaphragm,
not like bluegrass from the nose, from the diaphragm. Christ sang
from his heart. If we could ever sing, really
sing from our hearts we might sing for the first time. And
he sang perfectly. Why? He had a heart for God. You talk about singing praises
to God. Oh, he sang them perfectly with
all zeal and enthusiasm for the glory of God, the praise of God. Oh, I'd like to have heard that. But you know, someday we're going
to. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Someday Christ is going to lead
us in singing. Hebrews chapter 2, look at it
with me. Someday, it says here that Christ
is going to present us, all of his people, to the Father. And
at that grand and glorious family reunion that Paul spoke of in
Ephesians 3.15. of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named. It's going to be a family reunion.
It might not be your earthly family. It's going to be your
church family, though. It's going to be a family reunion
up there. And at that grand and glorious
family reunion of all the family in earth and now in heaven, Christ
himself is going to present us to the Father. Look at verse
13. He says, I'll put my trust in him, and again, behold, I
and the children which God hath given me." And then he's going
to lead us in singing. Say where you get that? Verse
twenty. Saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren, and in the midst of the church will I sing
praise unto thee. And I just bet you his voice
is going to be heard over us then. His voice will ring out above
all others. Why? He's God's soloist. He always has been. He's a soloist. Hebrews 1 says, established righteousness, fulfilled
the law, satisfied divine justice all by himself, shed his own
precious blood and poured it out, took it to the Father, poured
it out on that mercy seat, enabling God to be just and justifying
us, enabling God to receive us into his presence. He did it
all by himself. And one day he's going to lead
us in singing up there. And like I said, I just believe
that his voice is going to be heard ringing out above all else.
You know, Marvin and Linda sang this morning.
And I couldn't help but thinking how good Linda made Marvin sound. About the same as when I hear
Ed and Jeanette sing together. Christ will make us sound good. He, right now, He makes us look
good to the Father, doesn't He? He makes us sound good now. Our
prayers, our singing, everything, He has to take them. Doesn't
He know what Romans 8 said? He has to take them to the Father.
And with groanings that cannot be uttered, sanctify them before
the Father. And even then, He's going to
have to sing. He's going to have to sing solos.
Head tenor. We're always going to play second
fiddle. Always. And we all sing bass. Well, let me give you this thought
here. We're going to sing up there.
The Scripture says we're going to sing up there. There's going
to be some singing going on. But we'd better learn to sing
here. We've got to learn here. We've
got to tune our harps to middle C right now. Right now. We've got to learn to sing here.
Heaven. Listen to this. Heaven is not
some radical change that people suppose it to be. This world has got a wrong conception
of what heaven is going to be about. Heaven is just going to
be a perfect fruition, or rather a perfect a rendition of what started. Yes. This is the seed of what's
going on in heaven. Worship is sitting around the
throne, sitting at the feet of Christ, worshiping Christ, singing
his praises. That's just going to be the perfect
fruition or rather glorification of what we what is started right
here. And if you don't, if we don't enjoy singing now, We're not going to sing up there. We're not going to be there.
If we don't enjoy hearing the gospel now and worshiping now,
if it's a drudgery to us now, we're not going to be up there. But thank God, I see smiling
faces. I see people that evidently rejoice
in these things. Thanks be unto God. And He's
clothed you and put you in your right mind and sat you at the
feet of Christ to sing His praises and to worship Him. And we're
not going to start loving up there what we don't love here.
No, no, no. We're just going to love it perfectly.
That song said that those who refused to sing never knew our
Lord. Do you hear that story? I think
it was Spurgeon one time. He said, Dad, he had a fellow
in the congregation that never would sing. You just sit there. I've seen some people like that.
And Spurgeon got up one day. He said, We're going to sing.
What is that song? What's the name of that song? Somebody know
it right off. At any rate, I was looking at
it this morning. Spurgeon said, We're going to stand up and we're
going to sing this song. The second verse which says,
let those who refuse to sing who never knew our Lord. He said
the man sang. The man sang. Well, I hope God
will impress upon our hearts. Rather, I hope God will write
his word upon our hearts. You know, Christ didn't have
to have a Bible with him to sing those songs. He didn't have to think, let's
see what the second verse is. No, he sang out, I'll lift up
mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord. He knew them all. He could start
it at Psalm 1 and sang all the way through 150. He wrote them. And oh, that God would write
the word on our heart, indelibly. so that we could sing from the
heart and make music unto the Lord. But everything that hath
breath, praise the Lord. Okay, stand with me. Brother Rick, would you come
up here and dismiss us in prayer, please? We stand before thy holy throne speechless, thoughtless. We can't utter words sufficient enough to praise
thy holy name for the things that we hear of thee. Such a blessed privilege it is
to gather around thy word Hear the glorious message, the
gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. We ask your continued blessing
upon this place, upon this people, upon this pastor. We thank you
for him. We ask you to bless him with
thy word. Give him strength to continue
to preach Christ to us. This is what we need. Without
Christ, we're altogether vanity. Let your word go out in power,
not return void. Send it out to do thy will. to get glory for thy holy name.
We thank and we praise thy holy name. Dismiss us with thy blessing. In his name, amen.