We look at last week how God
had sent Samuel to anoint David to be the king over Israel, how
that he had passed by all the other, all of David's older brothers
and God had chose him. So then Samuel took the horn
of oil and anointed him in the midst or among his brethren or
above his brethren. And the spirit of the Lord came
upon David from that day. Now notice that statement. The
Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.
So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. Now look at the next verse.
But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit
from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servant said unto
him, Behold now an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let
our Lord now command thy servants which are before thee to seek
out a man, who is a cunning player on a harp, and ye 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, a mighty, valiant man, and a
man of war. and prudent in manners, and a
comely person, and the Lord is with him. Wherefore, Saul sent
messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which
is with the sheep. And Jesse took an ass, laden
with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David
his son unto Saul. And David came to Saul, and stood
before him, and he loved him greatly. And he became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying,
Let David, I pray thee, stand before me, for he hath found
favor in my sight. And it came to pass, when the
evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp
and played with his hand, so Saul was refreshed and was well. And the evil spirit departed
from Saul. I entitled this lesson, The Rejected
and the Chosen King. This is the first time we see
recorded in the scriptures where Saul, who was the people's choice,
and God had rejected him, God had refused him, God left him
to his own way, and God chose David. And now he calls David
to the palace. He has no idea who he is, because
if he knew who David was, as soon as he got to the palace,
Saul would have killed him. We know that from reading on
in Scripture. Saul hated him, but Saul has
no understanding who he is. But a lot of people, when we
read these verses, they don't really have a hard time understanding
this, about this evil spirit from the Lord coming upon Saul,
and how David playing a harp playing music make him well,
and he's his conscience. Somebody asked me the other day,
and I've heard this question asked a long time, was King Saul
ever converted? Was he ever saved? Was he ever
regenerated? Was he? Now listen, in interpreting
any scripture or any portion of scripture, Keep it in the
context of that scripture and also keep it in the context of
this whole book. You understand that? In the light
of all God's Word, what does it say about the Spirit of God? David was the anointed of God,
but it says also that Saul was the anointed of God. It says
that Saul prophesied. You say, well, what does all
that mean, preacher? The Spirit of God can come upon a man and
can influence a man without that man being regenerated. The Spirit
of God came upon Saul to qualify him to be king, to be the leader,
the political leader of those people, of that nation. It says,
let me give you a couple of scriptures. In 1 Samuel 10, verse 6, when
Saul first met Samuel, said, The Spirit of the Lord will come
upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and thou shalt be
turned into another man. And let it be, when those signs
are come upon thee, that thou shalt do as occasion serve thee,
for God is with thee. And thou shalt go down before
me to Gilgal. Behold, I will come down to thee
to offer burnt offerings, to sacrifice sacrifices of peace
offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till
I come to thee, and show thee what thou shalt do." And we know
that that's where he rebelled against God. It was so that when
he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another
heart. And all those signs came to pass that day. He prophesied,
he was influenced by the Spirit of God, and did not know God. Now that's something to think
about. But see, this is what bothers
people in religion. Because most of them, now listen
to me, most of them are in the same state that Saul is. They
are influenced, maybe, by the Spirit of God, but they're not
regenerated or illuminated by the Spirit of God. You know,
in Matthew chapter 7, it says, not everyone that says unto me,
Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of heaven. It says,
many will – now, they're going to actually stand before God
in the day of judgment. And here's the first thing they
say, have we not prophesied in thy name? Have we not preached
in thy name? And he never denied that they
didn't do those things. But then he says, depart from
me, I never knew you. Now, that's sobering, isn't it? This man, King Saul, influenced
by the Spirit of God, used by the Spirit of God, but never
knew God. That's something to think about.
This is where we're at today, people in religion, They are
influenced maybe by the Spirit of God, but do not know God. Never been regenerated by God.
Never been quick and never been given life. And when you read
there, when the Spirit of God came upon David from that day,
that doesn't mean that's when David was regenerated. We don't
know when David was regenerated and given life. But to me personally,
this is my own opinion. I believe he was out there with
them sheep alone. I believe God revealed himself
to him. Maybe through Samuel, I know
it comes through the preaching of the gospel, and we read all
those Psalms. I mean, just see them, and God
inspired this man to write these things. But then when God anointed
him, it's just like the Lord Jesus Christ. He was God when
he was born. But when he was baptized by John
the Baptist, when he was 30 years old, the Spirit of God descended
upon him like a dove. And he said, God hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. Equipped him as a man in his
ministry to preach the gospel. Saul would appear as another
man and appear to have another heart, but he was never regenerated. You know, that's sobering to
think about, isn't it? The Bible says, take heed that
if there be in you an evil heart of unbelief. I mean, it's not,
Saul had feelings and it seemed like it affected, and even when
David played his music, it affected him. It had an influence on him. And he still didn't know God.
I think that's something to think
about. There is no indication in this
book anywhere that Saul, King Saul, was ever a saved man. You know, when the first lesson
we brought, I took you back and showed you, he's always disobeying
God, always rebelling against God, and would not bow to the
Word of God, and God rejected him. And I showed you last week,
that word rejected meant refused, and God reprobated him. Why? When a man or an individual will
not retain God in their knowledge, and they will not bow to God,
will not surrender to God. God gives people over to reprobate
minds. And that's a mind that is not
influenced, and it's like a piece of concrete. It has no feelings,
no affections, and they're in hell before they're in hell. Jacob and Esau. Jacob to have
I loved, Esau have I hated. God left Esau to himself and
that man was a reprobate and it says he sought repentance
carefully with tears and he was, listen to the word, he was rejected
because God refused him. That's what makes religious people
mad because they say God wouldn't do that. God does do that. God, why did Israel even have
King Saul to start with? I showed you a couple of weeks
ago, God gave this man to him. He told Samuel, he said, Samuel
went to God and said, God, they want him a king. And God said,
I don't want them to have a king, but I'm going to give them one.
I'm going to give them what they want. And Samuel went and told him exactly
what kind of man he was going to be. And they said, we still
want him. We still want that man to reign over us. Now, he
can be a picture of a lot of different things. He can be a
picture of your flesh reigning over you, bringing you into bondage.
And it says, when the people followed Saul, they followed
him trembling, afraid. Our Lord told Isaiah, when he
sent Isaiah to preach the gospel, he said, I'll give people the
spirit of slumber, and they will not hear what you say. They will
not give heed to your message. Who give them the spirit of slumber?
Who did? God did. This book also says
God said, I will send them, I will send them strong delusions and
they'll believe a lie, that they all might be damned. Look how
this book does that. And he's just in doing it. Why?
He's God. The Spirit of God is God. The Spirit of God is sovereign.
He's God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. What did he tell the disciples
to do? He said he told them to go into all the world and preach
the gospel. But, he said, you tarry in Jerusalem. you tarry
in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. Those men were regenerated. Those
men were converted. Our Lord at one time breathed
on them, and they received the Spirit of God. But the Holy Spirit
came upon them and anointed them to preach the gospel." I know
people use that word, anointing. They've made it almost like a
cuss word. Most people, when they use that term, they speak
of it in charismatic movements when somebody says they're anointing
and they're going to try to speak in some unknown language. Isn't that true? But this is the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God is real. The Spirit of God lives within
you. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And our Lord said,
if I don't go, he will not come. And when he's come, listen to
me, he will abide with you forever. And it says here that the Spirit
of God departed from Saul. If the Spirit of God ever abides
in a believer, he will not depart from you. He won't ever leave
you. No such thing as losing your salvation. No such thing
as God coming to indwell your heart, and then maybe you sin
and backslide, as people call it, and then God leaves you.
If He ever lives in your heart, He's there. That's life. That's life. It departed from him, troubled
him. That word trouble means it tormented
him. You ever thought much about Judas
when he betrayed our Lord? Judas was a preacher. And none
of the other eleven apostles, I think, ever questioned whether
he was genuine or not. Or if not, they'd have never
trusted him with the money. He was the treasurer. He never
gave any evidence that he was an unbeliever. And he was an
unbeliever. And didn't know God. Didn't know him. Now listen, we may leave him
for a while, and we do. And we may think he's left us.
But he says, I'll never, never leave you, nor forsake you. You know what? We all see ourself
in song. We know that we're rebels by
nature and by choice and that it's not our goodness. And we're
all prone to mistrust God and filled with unbelief. But it's
because of his faithfulness to you, it's not based on your faithfulness
to him. The Spirit of God dwells in the
heart of a believer. Look at David. We're going to
see that in David's life. One, we're going to see next
week, the Lord willing, he stands and fights Goliath, but then
you'll see him another time going down to the same Philistines
with spittle running down his beard, acting like he's a madman
so they won't kill him. Is that the same man? Is that
the same man who has the Spirit of God upon him? The same man? The same man. What does this mean when God
departed him and left him alone? That's what God did. Now he's on his own. It says
in 1 Samuel 28, verse 6, And Saul inquired of the Lord, and
the Lord answered him not, neither by dream, nor by Euron, was what
they used to discern the will of God, or by prophet. Saul had this spirit of depression.
It terrified him. Like I said about Judas, Judas
betrayed our Lord for 30 pieces of silver. He willingly did what
he did. He chose to do it. And after
he did, he realized what he did, and he couldn't live with himself,
and he was so depressed. You know what he did? He went
out and hanged himself. The Spirit of the Lord had departed
from him and troubled him, and depression set in. God's people
a lot of times deal with depression. A lot of people deal with depression.
You know why? If you're a child of God and
ever known the Spirit of God and God speaking to your heart,
the scariest thing that I can imagine to a believer would be
to think that God had ever left you. Now, if that didn't bring
depression, I don't know what would. Right? Has he cast me
away? John Newton said, "'Tis a point
I long to know. Am I his or am I not?" And he
speaks like to the believer, said, "'Is it that way with you
or is it just me?' If we'd all be honest, we'd say we're all
that same way. In Proverbs 16, 4, listen, ìThe
Lord hath made all things for himself.î And find my verse, ìYet even
the wicked for the day of evil.î Isaiah 45, verse 5, ìI am the
Lord, and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee, though thou hast not known me.î that they may
know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there
is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none
else. He says, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace
and create evil. I, the Lord, do these things. And he does, because he's sovereign. And the world says, that's not
right. God wouldn't do that. Oh, yeah,
God does do that. God can reveal himself to you.
And God can regenerate you and save you just like he chose David
above all his brothers. And you know what he did to all
his brothers? He refused them. Didn't he? Passed over every
one of them. Chose David and saved David. That's exactly how
God works. That's how God works in salvation. You know why? That
no flesh glory in his sight. Your flesh or anybody else's
flesh. That no flesh glory in his sight. And this is what God
is showing. That it's not like King Saul
who stands higher than any man. And God rejected him. Listen to this. It's a good verse.
You might want to write this one down. Amos chapter 3, verse 6. Shall a trumpet be blown in the
city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in the city,
and the Lord hath not done it?" Why did 9-11 happen? Religion
would say, God had nothing to do with that. Oh, really? That's
not what that verse says. Shall there be evil in the city,
and the Lord hath not done it? God does all things. All things. Verse 16 and 17. So Saul was
terrified, he was troubled, and his servants knew him. And they
said, let us seek out a man that may come in and relieve you of
this problem. But what I want you to see is
what they didn't do. They're still looking to the
flesh. How they knew what was going
on in Saul's mind, I don't know, but they knew what was troubling
him. And they said, well, if we can
find somebody or a man to just play on some music, oh, he'll
take care of the problem. That wasn't the problem. You
know what Saul's problem was? It was rebellion. The servants
didn't say, now, Saul, why don't you seek God and ask for forgiveness
and repent of your sin? Why don't we call for Samuel
and see if Samuel will come here? None of those things. Does this
not sound familiar today? They want an easy fix. And that
won't fix the problem. That won't fix the problem. And Saul said, verse 17, unto
his servants, that sounds like a pretty good idea. Provide me
now a man that can play well and bring him to me. Then, all
of a sudden, this servant thought about David. Now, I don't know
how he knew about David. But in this verse, he gives some
descriptions or characteristics of David. Describes him. And we know these are descriptions
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what he said. Then answered
one of the servants and said, Behold, I have seen a servant,
the son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, that is cunning and playing. This was the great psalmist of
Israel. When did this man ever hear David play? I don't know.
But he knew about him. And he knew who he was. And there's
none like him. He says he played and he was
refreshed. Can you imagine hearing David
play? You know the difference. You
that know God know the difference between what's real and what
ain't. You know that. There's no working it up. Sometimes
you listen. It may be the same song sung
by the same person, and then God seems like that he moves
on that song, and he blesses that song to your heart. Oh,
and you know the difference. This is David, the psalmist of
Israel. He said, I've seen one. David,
he's able to do this. And listen, there's nobody else
can speak peace to your heart like our Lord. Oh, what sweet
music. I was reading this week in a
devotion and it said, you know, when our Lord celebrated the
Passover and instituted the Lord's table with his disciples before
he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, you know what it said they did?
They sung a hymn. Would you not have liked to have
heard our Lord sung a hymn while he was here upon this earth?
He sung a hymn. And he probably, I don't know,
I'm just speculating, he probably sung one of the psalms that spoke
about him. He said, I know a man that he's
cunning with the harp. He's not like everybody else.
He's distinct. Then secondly, he said he's a
mighty and vagrant man, and he's just a youth. He's a mighty and
a vagrant man. In Psalms 1834, he said, he teacheth
my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arm. Some that say that he could not
only just bend a bow to shoot an arrow, or he could break the
bow. There's nothing like he is. He's
a mighty and a valiant man. He's not a coward. You remember
when God brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea?
It said, Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song
unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord. For
he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my
song, and he is become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare
him in habitation. My Father is God, and I will
exalt him. So he is cunning and playing.
He's mighty and a valiant man, and he's prudent in wisdom, or
that could be he's prudent in speech. Do you know they never
had a single problem with the miracles our Lord did. The miracles
didn't bother him. He could feed 5,000 and nobody
got upset about that. But it was when he opened his
mouth, that's what made him mad. He's prudent in speech. No man
ever spake like this man. When our Lord was 12 years old,
the only time we read of any of his youth, any of us that's
recorded, was when he went to the temple and they're sitting
there listening to him. You know why? No man ever spake
like this man. No man. No man. Matthew 7, 28, and it came to
pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, that great sermon on
the mount, the people were astonished at his doctrine. Why? For he
taught them as one who having authority and not as the scribes. He's prudent in speech. John 6, 63, it is the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Why was David prudent in spirit?
The spirit of the God was upon him. And no man ever spake like
this man. No man. Then it says, he's a
comely person. Now, that means he's just handsome. You say, well, I thought the
Scriptures, if David's a type of Christ, I thought the Scriptures
say that there's nothing about him physically that would attract
you to himself. That's right. It does say that. But to a believer, everything
about him is comely. He is altogether lovely. And this person says, David,
he's a comely person. It said when David came in before
Samuel, he just looked at him and said, oh, look how comely
he is. There's none like him. None like him. We're going to see in a minute,
it says Saul loved him greatly. Michael, Saul's daughter, loved
him. Jonathan, Saul's son, loved him. David's men loved him. When David was sitting there
one day, he said, boy, I'd love to have a drink of water from
that well down at Bethlehem. And you know what they did? They
risked their life to go get it. Abigail loved him, fell at his
feet. Why? He's kindly. We beheld his glory. Then the last thing that they
said about David, they said that God is with him. Isaiah chapter 11, verse 1 through
verse 5, ìThere shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of
the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord. And he shall make him of quick
understanding in the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge
after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing
of the ears. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and
reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite
the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of
his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the
girdle of his loins, and faithfulness is the girdle of his reins."
It says that God did not give the Spirit by measure unto him. For whom God hath sent, speaketh
the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. God is with him. How did these,
looking at it in the human realm, just from the human side, of
David actually being a man, how did they see God in him? I don't
think that David tried to walk around with a humble countenance
or any of those things. They knew that God was with him.
They knew it. When Joseph was in Potiphar's
house, Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph. They saw it. Peter, James, and John, just
fishermen, unlearned and ignorant men, but when they saw him speak,
they took knowledge of those men that they had been with Jesus. This man, David. God's with him. God is with him. And when they saw our Lord, there
was no denying that he was God. They may not have liked it, but
he's God. Verse 19, and so here's all this,
wherefore Saul sent messengers to David, and said, Send me David
thy son, which is with the sheep, and he's always with the sheep.
Always. That's where God trained his
king. You know why? He's going to lead God's sheep,
his people, out there by himself, just him and God and them sheep.
And God gave him a love in his heart for those sheep. We're
going to see next week when he came to fight Goliath, he said
there was a lion and a bear come to take one of them little lambs.
And I killed the lion and the bear." Why? He laid down his
life for the sheep. He's always with the sheep. Our
Lord loves His sheep. Loves His sheep. That's where
you're going to find that. He's there with them sheep. Always with the sheep. So they sent the servant to get
David, and David's father took an ass laden with bread, and
a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son
unto Saul. Jesse sends David to Saul with
these gifts of goodwill. Some think that Jesse might have
suspected that Saul might have killed David, so he's trying
to appease his anger. But I think we see something
more here. We see here a picture of God's
mercy toward sinners in this world. Saul being the sinner,
the rebel, and God is sending these gifts unto him. He was
sent a speaker. He didn't just send Saul a David
just so he could look at him because he was comely. He sent
him with these gifts. These are tokens of kindness.
to this troubled king. His father sent Christ into the
world that the world through him might be saved. He'd never
come to condemn the world, but that the world through him might
be saved. All these gifts. He took this
donkey and laded this bread and these wines and he sent it by
the hand of David. David is pictured here as what?
The servant. Going to Saul to serve Saul. Our Lord came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister and give his life a ransom for many. As
I mentioned last Sunday, the gospel of Mark, the theme of
the gospel of Mark presents him as the servant of God. The servant. You know why? Christ must be the servant before
he sits on the throne. He learned obedience by the things
which he suffered. And David has to come to the
palace. He's never been to the palace.
And this is the man that will one day sit on that throne. And you know what? God is teaching
David in the palace. He's teaching him to be a servant.
He's teaching him one day he's going to sit on that throne,
and God's on time. And look what it says. When David came to Saul and stood
before him, he loved him greatly and he became his armor bearer.
Why did Saul love him? He said he loved him greatly.
Why did he? Here comes. He never met him.
He walks in and it says he loved him greatly. God made him love him. That's why. Later on, we're going
to see, and you know, if you've read the story at any time, Saul
hated him, would have tried to kill him. But here he loved him
greatly. When he sent back to Jesse, he
said, he's found favor in my sight. We quote this verse a lot. The
king's heart is in the hands of the Lord, and he turns it
whichever way he wants it to go. And at this point in time,
he put it in Saul's heart to love David greatly. Loved him. Didn't want him to leave. Right
there where it says armor-bearer, we never read that he was ever
Saul's armor-bearer. Gil said that he was to be a
bearer of vessels because when we get to when David comes down
to fight Goliath, remember that's when Saul wants to put his armor
on David. He wasn't there as David's, I
mean as Saul's armor-bearer. he was here to be the servant,
but he's the king, the chosen king. In verse 22, 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 an
harp and played with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was
well, and the evil spirit departed from man. He was refreshed. It was a temporary
fix. That's all it was, was temporary.
Man always wants something temporary. I believe that individuals can
be influenced by good, sound, gospel music that honors God,
that their emotions, now listen to me, that their emotions can
be affected, and they never knew God. Isn't that something to
think about? That's what I see here with Saul. He was refreshed. Can you imagine
being Saul? And God reminding you of what
you've done. Man, I wish I'd have waited on
Samuel. God told me to wait and not offer that sacrifice. And
I took it upon myself to be the priest. And I took it upon myself
to offer the sacrifice. And I didn't do it. And God told
me to go down to that country of Ziklag and kill everybody
and destroy everything. And I kept the best sheep and
the lambs. And I kept the king alive. And
that torment in his mind, that's trouble. It troubled him. It distressed him. This is just
my opinion. I believe that when a man dies,
that a man's conscience is going to be the worm that never dies.
Don't you? That rich man in hell remembered. He remembered. that he had five
brethren that were still living up on the earth, and he didn't
want them to come to that place. Now, that would have been torment
to know that they were there, to know that they were not believers,
and to know that they may come to that place, and there's nothing
you can do about it. Now, this is torment for a man
to be under the judicial hand of Almighty God, and God is tormenting
him and his conscience, and there's nothing he can do about it. But there's times he feels a
little refreshed. You know what I think he does?
I think just for a little while he forgets. And he made me think
about the grace of God, and the mercy of God, and the love of
God. But he's never experienced the
grace, love, and mercy of God. To me, I think this is very sobering.
Sobering. Most people presume that they
know God. That's what I felt. That doesn't
matter. I can't remember who it was that
either wrote the song or the poem. One, it says, feelings
come and feelings go. And feelings are deceiving. We
stand upon the Word of God. Nothing else, nothing else is
worth believing. But let me tell you, children
of God, If the Spirit of God ever has come upon you, He will
abide with you forever. To me, that's comforting. He passed over everybody else,
and He picked you out, and He set His love upon you. And whether
this world likes it or not, they know that you're favored by Almighty
God. They can't describe it, they
don't know why, they just do. You know why? The Spirit of God
is within you.