Let's ask the Lord's blessing
on us. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and we ask that we might be enabled to hear your
gospel in the power of your spirit. And we ask that we might be enabled
to worship your son. Bless us, O Lord, for Christ's
sake. and forgive us of our sins, and cleanse us, and oh, grant
us your presence. In Christ's blessed name we pray,
amen. Now to say the least, this is
an unusual passage of scripture we're going to look at. I can't
say that I understand it more than anything else. I'm just
giving the story of what took place. This is where David was
anointed king, the Spirit of God came upon him, and the Spirit
of God actually left Saul. Now, what all that means, I'll
try to get through it, but it's very important. The Lord wouldn't
have revealed it if it was not important. Look in verse 13 of
1 Samuel chapter 16. Then Samuel took the horn of
oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren, speaking of
David, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that
day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to
Ramah. Now when David was anointed king,
the Spirit of God came upon him. The Spirit of God is the third
person of the Trinity. He is just as much God as God
the Father and God the Son. In some respects, all of the
persons of the Trinity are mysterious to us, but in some respects,
God the Holy Spirit is the most mysterious. He is to me at any
rate. He is a part of the us. When
God said, let us make man in our own image, the Spirit of
God is the third person of the Trinity. And all three persons
of the Trinity have a special work in salvation. God the Father
elects, God the Son redeems, and God the Holy Spirit regenerates. He gives life. He's the author
of the new birth. Now, in the Old Testament, the
Spirit of God would come upon men to enable them to perform
supernatural feats so that God's purpose would be done. Let me
show you an example of this. You remember Samson. You remember
how he had this supernatural strength that God gave him? He
had such strength that he could pull the pillars of a temple
down and it was the Spirit of God upon him. Turn with me to
the book of Judges, chapter 13. Verse 24, chapter 13, the last
verse of chapter 13. And the woman bare a son, and
called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord
blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began
to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtael. And I think that this is a reference
to these feats of strength that he showed. Verse 1 of chapter
14, And Samson went down to Temnath, and saw a woman in Temnath of
the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his
father and his mother, and said, I've seen a woman in the Temnath
of the daughter of the Philistines. Now therefore, get her for me
to a wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is
there never a woman among the daughters of thy brother, among
all thy people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised
Philistines? And Samson said unto his father,
Get her for me, for she pleaseth me well. But his father and his
mother knew not that it was of the Lord. that he sought an occasion,
the Lord sought an occasion against the Philistines for at that time
the Philistines had dominion over Israel. Now you see that
the Lord gave Samson this supernatural strength and power and the Lord
was seeking a reason to fight the Philistines and he put this
in Samson's heart somehow to go after this woman simply so
he could use her and Samson to destroy the Philistines. And
so the Spirit of God came upon him in a supernatural way. Now,
God came supernaturally upon David. What about that passage
in 1 Samuel 17 where David was given such strength that he could
grab a lion by the beard and hit him and kill him? No mere
man could do that. He was given supernatural strength
to do that. Saul, at times, was given supernatural
strength. You can read about it in 1 Samuel
11 and 1 Samuel chapter 12, where he was used by God to deliver
Israel from the Philistines. He had the Spirit of God come
upon him, and he did supernatural things. Now, we read in verse
14 of First Samuel chapter 16. Now,
the Spirit came upon David, and David was enabled to do these
miraculous things because of that. But, verse 14, the Spirit
of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord
troubled him. He was like Samson when he lost
his strength, the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and
Saul no longer had his help. That's scary, isn't it? That's
all I can say, it's scary. And I, when I look at a passage
of scripture like that, I think of what David said, when David
said, cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy
Spirit from me. Now, that was David's response.
And when we look at a passage of scripture like this, don't
just dismiss it. I don't know what all it means, but I know
it's scary. Saul, as a judgment of the Lord
against him, had the Spirit removed from him. Now, we know he wasn't
a believer. We know that from looking at
his life. We know he did have some kind of gift to where he
was enabled to prophesy. He had the Spirit of God to do
that. He had the Spirit of God to perform these supernatural
feats of strength, and yet the Spirit was taken from him. Now, I know that if I'm a believer,
I can't lose the Holy Spirit. But I can certainly grieve Him,
can't I? The Scripture says that grieve not the Spirit of God.
I can quench Him. I can quench His influences,
because the Scripture also says to quench not the Spirit. So
those things certainly can happen. And we see how this happened
with Saul, and it was a judgment against him because of, now here
we go. This is hard to talk about anyway,
and then when I have that phone ringing, it's really hard, you
know, I mean, it's, but an evil spirit from the Lord came upon
him and terrified him, the scripture says, troubled him. And you read
a lot in the Bible about the Lord sending strong delusion.
The Lord doing it. The Lord shall send strong delusion
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness.
That's what the scripture says. The Lord sending something like
this. You remember when God was going to have Ahab deceived,
he sent lying spirits into the prophets. The Lord sent a lying
spirit into the prophets so that Ahab would be deceived. And so
we have here, Saul, the Lord taking the spirit from him and
sending an evil spirit that would trouble him. And we read during
these times when this evil spirit would come and trouble and terrify
him, he tried to kill David. An evil spirit would come upon
him, he'd take a javelin and throw it at David and try to
kill him. It influenced his action. Now let's go on reading. Verse
14, but the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil
spirit from the Lord troubled him. And I have to say this,
why did the Spirit of the Lord depart from Saul? If you'll remember,
the reason is that Saul spared the Amalekites. He spared the
flesh. He refused to deny the flesh
in salvation is really what that means. He spared the flesh. He
let it stay. He let it have some credit and
God departed from him. He became under the judgment
of God at that time because he refused to spare the Amalekites.
And the significance of the Amalekites is he was giving some credit,
sparing the flesh. some work of the flesh. He would
not destroy the Amalekites as God commanded him to do it. So
the Spirit of the Lord departed from him. This shows the seriousness
of giving the flesh any credit in salvation. God will not tolerate
it. And that's what he did with Saul. So, verse 15, And Saul's
servants said unto him, Behold, now an evil spirit from God troubleth
thee. They knew that. 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 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. Now, that's another
one of those things I just don't understand all that much, but
you have this evil spirit of God troubling you and these fellows
say, if you get a man who's really skilled at playing the harp,
a great musician, it'll settle your mind. you won't be troubled
like you were. And Saul said unto his servants,
provide me now a man that can play well and bring him to me.
Verse 18, then answered one of the servants and said, behold,
I've seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, it's talking about
David, that is cunning and playing and a mighty valiant man and
a man of war and prudent in matters and a cumbling person and the
Lord is with him. What a description of the greater
David. We're going to consider that in just a moment. Verse
19, Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me
David thy son, which is with the sheep. David was a shepherd.
Just like the greater David is a shepherd. And Jesse took an
ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent
them by David unto his son, and to 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 an harp,
and played with his hand, so Saul was refreshed. and was well,
and the evil spirit departed from him." Now, I don't know
what all's involved with that evil spirit and what all it did
to him. I know that when it came upon him several times, he tried
to kill David. It had some kind of influence
on him. But the scripture says that when he would hear David
play this harp, and how must David have sounded when he played
that harp? I'd like to hear that, wouldn't you? But the evil spirit
departed. Now, let's go back to verse 18. There are eight things said of
David that speak of the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then answered one of the servants and said, behold, I've 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. Now what a beautiful description
of Jesus Christ. Now first, He was the son of
Jesse. What's the significance of that?
Well, the seed royal came through Him and that's why the New Testament
devotes so much time to the genealogy of Christ. You look at Matthew's
account and Luke's account, an entire chapter is devoted to
the Genealogy of Christ. He's the son of David who came
through Jesse, who came through Obed. I mean, there's a seed
royal and this is pointed out so that we might know who the
greater David is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, it's pointed
out that he was a Bethlehemite. Where was the Lord Jesus born?
Bethlehem. Listen to the scripture from
Micah, chapter 5, verse 2. You see, it was prophesied that
the Lord Jesus Christ would come out of the city of David, Bethlehem. And this is very important. And
notice it says, thirdly, that he's got to be a man cunning
in playing. Now, who can calm a troubled
heart like the Lord Jesus? No one and nothing. He said, come unto me, all ye
that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He's the only one who can cure
and help and calm and comfort the troubled heart. If you're
troubled, I don't care what it's about, there's only one place
to go, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's cunning in playing, and
you'll find rest to your soul in coming to him. And then it's
pointed out that he was a mighty, valiant man. Look in verse 18
again. Then answered one of the servants
and said, Behold, I've seen the son of Jesse, the seed royal,
the Bethlehemite, the one who comes out of Bethlehem. He's
cunning and playing. There's no comfort like the gospel. And next it says he's a mighty,
valiant man. Now, David demonstrated his supernatural
strength and his supernatural ability when he defeated a lion
and a bear. Look in 1 Samuel chapter 17. And David said to Saul, let no
man's heart, verse 32, We're going to start on this next week,
David and Goliath, and we're gonna spend several weeks in
that. But David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because
of him. Thy servant will go and fight with the Philistine. And
Saul said to David, thou are not able to go against this Philistine
to fight with him for your youth. And he's a man of war from his
youth. And David said unto Saul, thy servant kept his father's
sheep. And there came a lion. and a bear, and took a lamb out
of the flock. And I went after him, and smote
him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose
against me, I caught him by the beard, and I smote him and slew
him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised
Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the
armies of the living God. David said, moreover, the Lord
that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the
paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.
And Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with thee. Now here
we see David's supernatural ability. Now, the very heart and soul
of faith is believing the ability of Christ. I want you to forget
about yourself right now for just a moment. I want to do the
same thing. Do you believe Christ is able? Do you believe He is
able? Do you believe He has the ability
to save? Now, let me bring you back into
it, myself back into it. Do you believe He has the ability
to save you with no help from you? He's a mighty man of war,
a mighty, valiant man. David or Paul said, I know whom
I have believed. And I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed to him against that
day. Now, do you believe he is able? Do you believe the same
thing the leper believed? The leper said, Lord, if you will,
you can. You have the ability to make
me clean. Now, that's what We believe,
that's who we believe. We believe his ability. Abraham
was fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able
also to perform. He's a mighty man of valor. All of my hope is in his ability. And look what's said next in
verse 18 of 1 Samuel 16. Not only is he a mighty, valiant
man who has all power and the ability to do whatever he set
out to do, but he's also a man of war. And this is what David
is called. And if you'll remember the song
of Moses in Exodus chapter 15, verse three, what's the first
thing he calls the Lord? A man of war. Now, what this
is a reference to is Him fighting our battles for us. Look in 1 Samuel chapter 17,
verse 42. This is when The giant comes to David, verse
42, and when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained
him, for he was but a youth and ruddy and of a fair countenance.
He's a pretty boy. And the Philistine said unto
David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And
the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine
said to David, Come to me, and I'll give thy flesh unto the
fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field. Then said David
to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with
a spear, and with a shield. But I come unto thee in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom
thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into my hand, and I will smite thee, and take thine head
from thee, and I'll give the carcasses of the host of the
Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the
wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there's
a God in Israel, and all this assembly shall know that the
Lord saveth not with sword or with spear, for the battle is
the Lord's. The fight is the Lord's, and
He will deliver you into our hand. Now, turn to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40. Verse 1, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. The battle's
already been won. You see, the Lord's a man of
war. He's fought this battle for you. And you speak to Jerusalem
and say, her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned, for
she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Now the Lord's a man of war.
And this is not talking about Him, you know what, this is not
a reference to Him just fighting the way we fight. This is talking
about Him fighting our battles for us. And my dear friends,
that's exactly what I need. I need Him to fight my battles
for me. He's a man of war. And look what
it says next in our text, in 1 Samuel 16, verse 18. He's the son of Jesse. He's from
Bethlehem. He's cunning and playing. He's
a mighty valiant man, a man able to do whatever he's pleased to
do. He's a man of war who fights our battles for us. And look
what it says next. He's prudent in matters. And my marginal reading says
that word matters is words or speech. He's prudent in speech,
his words. Now here's the point. The Lord
Jesus Christ is identified by his words, by what he says, by
his doctrine. It's the doctrine of Christ. Now, I love his words. I think when the crowd responded
to his message in John chapter 6, they said, these are hard
sayings. Who can hear? You know, they're
not hard sayings to his people. They love his words. They love his doctrine. They
love how he identifies himself by his word. You know, every
word he says is perfect, isn't it? I love the way he speaks
to sinners. Come to me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden. I love the way he spoke to that
woman at the well. I that speak unto thee, identifying himself
as the Messiah. I that speak unto thee, am he.
I like the way he talked to the Pharisees, too. I like the way
he talked to his enemies. Everything he said, we love his
words, don't we? Oh, he is prudent in words. He says things exactly as they
ought to be said. And we know who he is by his
words. By the things he says. You can't
separate Christ from His Word. You can't separate Christ from
His doctrine. Oh, he's prudent in matters. And the seventh thing it says
about him is a comely person, a beautiful person, is what that
word means. He's beautiful. And I love that
song you sing, Kara, How Beautiful. The Lord Jesus Christ is so beautiful. He's beautiful to me. He's beautiful
in His person. He's beautiful in His work. Oh,
how beautiful He is as He was my surety before time began.
How beautiful He is in His birth when the infinite became an infinite. How beautiful He is in His life. How He obeyed God perfectly. Oh, how beautiful. How beautiful
He is in His death when He obeyed His Father to the point of death.
How beautiful He was in His death when He died for me. How beautiful
is He in the accomplishments of His death when He put away
sins? How beautiful He is in His resurrection? I love to think
of Him being dead in the tomb and all of a sudden opening up
His eyes. Don't you love to think about how beautiful He was when
He walked out of the tomb? How beautiful He was when He
ascended back to His Father? How beautiful He is now as He's
my representative, as He's my great high priest and intercession. How beautiful is the Lord Jesus
Christ. How beautiful in His return.
Jesus Christ is beautiful. There's nobody like Him. Truly
He's the fairest of 10,000. Nobody like Him. Oh, how beautiful
is Jesus Christ. He's comely in His person. And then the last thing that's
said of Him In verse 18, the Lord is with him. The Lord is with him. Now, the scripture says he had
the Spirit without measure. Now, if I'm a believer, I have
a measure of the Spirit. If you're a believer, you have
a measure of the Spirit. That's the way you believe. But he had
the Spirit without measure. And oh, how the Father was with
Him. The Father was with Him through
everything He did. He had the Father's presence.
He has the Father's presence. Oh, the Father delights in His
presence. The Lord is with Him. That's
why He's our Savior. The Lord is with him. Now, what
a description of our great David. I think this is about as beautiful
description and comprehensive a description as you're gonna
find of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this verse of scripture, verse
18, then answered one of the servants that said, behold, I've
seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, that's cunning and plain, and
a mighty valiant man. and a man of war, and prudent
in matters or words, and a comely, a beautiful person, and the Lord
is with him." And when he would play that harp, Saul was so distressed. And you know, I feel sorry for
Saul. There's so much in Saul I can identify with. I feel sorry
for him. And when he has this evil spirit
and he's so overcome and terrified, I don't know what all's behind
that. Scripture points it out for a purpose. But I know this,
David could play the harp in such a way that that evil spirit
would depart from Saul and he would feel refreshed. What a
glorious Savior is Jesus Christ. And you know, One of these days,
in glory, I'm going to get to hear Him play that harp. Isn't
that a wonderful thing to think about? To think of the Lord playing
that harp that is so sweet and so beautiful
and so glorious. The next week we're going to
start in what I believe is probably the most famous story in the
Old Testament. The story of David and Goliath.
And you know, particularly in sports, you always hear it. You
know, it's a David and Goliath and fighting insurmountable odds
and winning and so on. It's probably the most well-known
story in the Old Testament. But oh, what a beautiful gospel
story this is. And we're going to probably stay
in that for several weeks.