All right, once again, we're in chapter 16, and it's where we're at. This is where we're going to start the story, and actually be ready to turn some pages back, because we're actually going to go back a little bit in our Bibles as well. You know, as we start a new study, I'm excited about what we're going to find as we study. I don't know how long this is going to take. I don't have any idea, you know, in what detail we're going to study the life of David is what we're doing as we come to this. And so I don't know what pace we're going to take. I imagine there's going to be things that in our normal Bible reading we perhaps haven't noticed or haven't stopped to think about that maybe are going to kind of jump off the page at us and hopefully be a blessing to us with regard to this Bible character. Now, with regard to David, He's arguably one of the top three Bible characters in the Bible. If I said name the top two Bible characters in the New Testament, other than the Lord Jesus Christ, obviously we understand the Bible's about the Savior, but you probably would say Peter and Paul, you know, as being the primary New Testament men. But when you go back to the Old Testament, you've got probably Moses, Abraham, and David, I would say, as the premier men of God. Now, I know Elijah's a great man of God. I enjoy the life of Elijah. I enjoy Elisha. There's other great men in the Old Testament, but really of great significance to Christians of all ages, Old Testament Christians, New Testament Christians. It really begins with Moses and Abraham, obviously, before and then. David. With regard to David, we've got the Davidic covenant, similar to Abraham. You've got the covenant with Abraham that they would be God's people and that the blessing would come to all nations through Abraham. While with David, you've got the Davidic covenant that the Savior is going to reign on the throne of David and that God is going to give a kingdom that is an everlasting kingdom. And so that certainly makes David significant as well. David's also a type of Christ. There's things that you look at in the life of David and say, that reminds me a lot about the Lord Jesus. He is a shepherd, and our Savior, of course, is a shepherd. He is a giant slayer as he takes on Goliath. And we know that our Lord did battle with the devil at the cross and was victorious over him and will be victorious when he comes back as a warrior, even as David was a warrior. And as he sets up his throne as king, David was a king. So, I mean, there's a lot of things that you look at in life of David and say, that really reminds me of the Savior. And then David wrote much prophecy about Christ. When you read the Psalms, you've got Messianic Psalms. And I mean, so many prophecies about the coming Christ that David penned under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Again, very significant, this man. Now, I remind us, as we come to what is a character study in the Bible, that we are studying a Bible character, which is much more significant than a historical Christian figure or something like that. 2 Timothy 3.16 says, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So we can go back to the life of David as we will, and we can say, this is doctrine. This is fundamental truth about God, about how God works. And from the scriptures, we have authority to say, this is something that we need to understand, something we need to practice, something that we need to apply to our life. Now, I mentioned recently that I've been reading the biography of Duncan Campbell. I finished it last night. And I appreciate what I read there, but I'll say this about the life of Duncan Campbell, and he'd say this about himself, that is just a man, that is just a life, that is not something that we take and we build doctrine off of, or we build practice off of, that we should look at his life and say, well, he did that, and so I should do that in my life. I shouldn't come to that conclusion unless what he did in his life is absolutely authoritatively backed up by the word of God. God uses different people, different times, different ways. but there is not a man's life that we could go to outside of scripture and preach it. Nobody could get up and preach on the life of Duncan Campbell and with authority outside of this book, which is a perfect record of the life of a man. For instance, the author, I don't know who the author was of that biography. I know he wrote a little forward at the beginning, but he's just a man. He wasn't inspired by the spirit of God. He didn't have a presence there. Now think about this. I mean, people were there, but people's minds are colored by their perception and all sorts of different things. But when it comes to scripture and the accounts that the Bible gives, it's not colored by anything other than the perfect eyesight of a holy God and the spirit of God of viewing what took place in that person's life. And so what the spirit of God does, he reveals the man who became King David and he does so perfectly. He shows the good and the bad, right? And that's one of the testimonies that the Bible is a divine book in that it doesn't hold back even from a good man's life telling things that, you know, you and I would not want to be known about our lives, things that took place, but God used those men as examples to tell us how God works with men in very practical ways and how God sees the heart and how God understands what's taking place in the life of individuals. There's a Scottish author, I think he's Scottish, he wrote definitely here in Scotland, his name's Arthur Pink, and Arthur Pink wrote a book called The Life of David. I've got it in my library, and I've read it a couple times, I'll probably read it again. It's a thick book, all right? It's basically a biography about the life of David. And what's interesting about it, and the thing, the lesson that stands out to me every time I've read it, is that if you sow, you reap. And I'll tell you this, as an author, that's one of the things that he brings out, is that this is what David did in his life, this is what he reaped in his life. And so it's a strong principle that we'll see in the life of David. Now, that shouldn't surprise us. Galatians 6, 7 says, be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the spirit, shall the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Okay? So righteousness, don't give up doing that because you're gonna reap great benefit from that. Don't get weary of your devotions. Don't get weary from hearing the word of God preached and taught. Don't get weary of applying the truth of the word of God to your life. Why? Because that's gonna reap great dividends And in contrast, if we sow to the flesh, then of the flesh we reap corruption. We'll see that in the life of David. When he sows righteousness, he reaps righteousness. He sows sin, he reaps judgment. And so again, this morning we begin a study of the life of the shepherd king, King David. So 1 Samuel chapter 16, and let me give a little bit of the historical context of what we're looking at. Israel, had been a theocracy in that God was the sovereign ruler over Israel. God led Israel through the servant leaders that he had. So he had Moses and he had the high priest and the priesthood, the Levitical priesthood. He had the delegated authorities that had been brought into place in the life of Moses. And God ruled them, God ruled them through those delegated authorities that he put over them, such as the judges and the prophets. And in our Bible reading this past week, if you're doing the church Bible reading, we read Acts chapter 13. And in verse 20, it speaks about this as Paul's preaching. He said, after that, he gave them to them judges about the space of 450 years, okay? With Samuel, the prophet. I'm sorry, until Sam the prophet can't read my own writing. And afterward, they desired a king and God gave unto them Saul, the son of Sis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin by the space of 40 years. So about 450 years, God is ruling Israel as a theocracy. He is directly over them until they decide to cast him away. Now we studied this, I forget when, I know I preached a message on this passage not too long ago about Israel, seeing the sons of Samuel and they're disobedient and wicked, they use that as an excuse to cast off the theocracy and say, we don't want that anymore, we want a king. And so the Bible tells about that. If you want to go back in your Bible to 1 Samuel 8, All right, chapter eight and verse four, it says, then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah and said unto him, behold, thou art old and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Okay, so there in that, you read that and think, well, that's not a bad idea. Samuel's sons are wicked. And so this is legitimate that they're asking this. No, it's not legitimate. They're casting off God. They're desirous of getting out from under that authoritative power that God possessed over the nation. And so the reaction you see in the life, in the heart of Samuel as a spiritual leader, it says, but the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee. And you stop there and you go, well, God approved. God says it's okay, but God is going to let them do something that is contrary to what he desires them to do because he says this, for they have not rejected thee, "'but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.'" Now was God upset? Did this mess up God's plans? No, it didn't mess up God's plans. It went right into the plans that God had all along for the Messiah Savior to come through the lineage of David. There's not a thing about this that surprises God, and yet we get there through the disobedience of men casting off God. And so they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. So they use that as an excuse. Now Samuel warned them, and you might remember this from the message, that if they take a king, the taxes are going to get raised. You're going to have to give up your sons and daughters to go work for the king. You're not going to have the good help on your farm that you had before, and you're going to suffer for it. But they didn't care about that. They wanted a king and they demanded to have one. And so 1 Samuel 8, 22, the Lord said to Samuel, hearken unto their voice and make them a king. Okay, God says, all right, all right, they want a king, you can have a king. Now, it's not gonna be for their benefit. They're really gonna reap this under Saul as they have a leader that does not lead them as God's servants had led them in the past with good judges that ruled them as God desired them to. Now, the king they get is a big, tall man who is shy and humble, all right, as we are introduced to him. And so, look with me at 1 Samuel 9 in verse 1. Now there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abel, the son of Zerar, the son of Bechoroth, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, and a mighty man of power. So he's of the tribe of Benjamin. And he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice young man and goodly. There was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he. from his shoulders and upward. He was higher than any of the people. So I mean, now it says about our Lord, there's not anything that if you see him that you desire him. That our Lord himself was not somebody of significant stature or significant looks. But when the Bible speaks about Saul and you think about his son Absalom, the hair that Absalom pulled, Absalom came from good stock. And I'm sorry, I'm going to David and just ignore that, scratch that out, take that away. But King Saul himself was a powerful man. That if you looked at him, you would look at King Saul and say, there is a great man. and he was a humble man as well. And we see his humility in his life as Saul's father. lost his donkeys and they escaped and Saul goes to seek them. Saul humbly went to seek them. 1 Samuel 9 verse 19. And Samuel answered Saul and said, I am the seer. Go up before me unto the high place for you shall eat with me today. And tomorrow I will let thee go. And I will tell thee all that is in thine heart. And as for thy donkeys that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee and on all thy father's house? Okay, so here's Saul. He's just a stable hand, as it were, for his dad. The donkeys are lost and his dad says, go find the donkeys. What does Saul do? He goes, finds the donkeys. He's a humble man that doesn't mind doing humble work. And that's what he's out doing. But after they're found, Samuel says to Saul, God's got a great plan for your family. He says, on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee and on all thy father's house? And Samuel looks at Saul and says, God has a great plan for your house. And Saul could have responded like, oh, of course, you know, we're the greatest, you know, of the great, but he doesn't respond that way. He responds with humility in verse 21. And Saul answered and said, am not I a Benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? In my family, the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin. "'Wherefore then speakest thou so to me?' There's a humility in the heart of the man that we find who becomes the king of Israel, the first king of Israel. And there is the heart that you see in the life of others of God's servants whom God could greatly use, like Gideon, that looked at his life and said, you know, who am I as God came and desired to use him? And so he questions that great declaration. Wherefore then speakest thou so to me? And then when it's time to appoint him, turn to 1 Samuel 10, verse 19. When it's time for him to be appointed, Saul does something that's kind of interesting. Samuel speaking to the people, he says, you have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations. And you have said unto him, nay, but set a king over us. Now therefore, present yourselves therefore before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands. And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken. Now, did Samuel already know that Saul was gonna be the king? Yes, right? I mean, he's already, I guess we haven't really talked much about the story, but he has already met with Saul. He's already identified to him that you're going to be the king, but now publicly in front of all the people, he is showing that this is the man that God has chosen to lead Israel. And when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken and Saul, the son of Kish was taken. And when they sought him, he could not be found. Therefore they inquired of the Lord further, if the man should yet come further, and the Lord answered, behold, he hath hid himself among the staff. And they ran and fetched him fence, and when he stood up among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward again. He's a man of great stature. And Samuel said to all the people, see him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among the people. And all the people shouted and said, God saved the king. Now remember this, when we go to the next part of the story, as Samuel looks for a man, I mean, Samuel is used to looking for a kingly man, right? I mean, he sees as men see, and a lot of times that's gonna be our perspective too. What a great person, God can really maybe use that person because of their stature. And we might feel maybe God can't use us because of our lack of stature or something like that. But we're gonna find that that doesn't matter to God, but this man is a, a great man, and more importantly, he is a humble man. He's a humble man. And so God can use him. And that was a great start for him. You know, one of the greatest things that we can cultivate in our life is humility. If we want to be something that God can use, humility is where we need to start. And it starts with this, God, you are right, I am wrong, please forgive me. So that when I come to the word of God or I come to the truth of God, I look at it with a tender heart and say in honesty, God, if there's anything in my life that violates what you desire me to do, what you want about my life, what you want me to do or not do, God, by your grace, I submit, right? That's humility and being willing to obey God. And then God, whatever you want me to do, I will do. Whatever that is, Scott, it's not my life. You're in charge of my life. Whatever you want me to do, God, I will do. Another thing is to remember that as you serve God, it's only because of God's goodness in using you. Luke 17, verse 10. So likewise ye, when ye have done all those things which are commanded you, Jesus said, say we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do. And it's the story of the servant that gets back to the house after working hard in the field, does the master say to him, hey, come sit down while I feed you? And the answer is no, he says, come and feed me and serve me. And the Savior says, if you do all that, I mean, we think, we kind of tend to think, well, that's commendable. No, it's just, I'm an unprofitable servant. It's really an honor to serve God in whatever way I can serve God. And so the humility of that is saying, God, I'm not worthy. It's my duty to do that. King Saul started out there, but he quickly disobeyed God. And so we're going to look at his transgressions now, how he failed God. And the first is that he disobeyed God in offering a sacrifice. Okay, what was Saul? He was, what was his position? His position was king. He was not prophet. He was not priest. He was king. And so his job is not to go and to offer a sacrifice. And so 1 Samuel chapter 13 in verse eight, It says, and he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. But Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. And so as the Bible states that, Saul's thinking about that, all right? Samuel hasn't come yet. Boy, we need to offer a sacrifice. And the people are scattered. I need to call them together. And so he's gonna think pragmatically about that and say, I've gotta come up with a solution for that. I've gotta solve that problem. And so verse nine, and Saul said, bring thither a burnt offering to me and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering and it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him that he might salute him. Okay, Saul has sinned. He has stepped into the priest's office or the prophet's office. He shouldn't offer a sacrifice, but he has. As soon as he does, who comes? Samuel. It was a test. I mean, I think clearly we can see in the word of God that that was a test. What's Saul gonna do in that? It goes back to that sowing and reaping passage that we already talked about. Be not weary in well-doing, right? For in due season you reap if you faint not. Just keep on keeping on. Keep your eyes on God and obey God and pass the test because God's gonna come through. God would have come through and Samuel would have been there. It would have been great, but he didn't. And so as soon as he did that, Samuel comes. Verse 11. And Samuel said, what hast thou done? And Saul said, because I saw the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the day appointed, and there's another reason listed here, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash. Okay, what hast thou done? Does he answer? He justifies what he's done. Now I know Samuel knows what he's done, but he's got his reasons, right? He's going to lay him out there. Number one, number two, number three. Notice he makes it spiritual. And we'll see this again, another point that he's gonna make it spiritual again. Therefore I forced myself, this was spiritual. I'm gonna worship God by doing this. This is actually really a religious thing that I'm doing. And then he says, what? I forced myself and offered a burnt sacrifice. Question, how hard is it to sin? Easy, how hard is it to do what's right? Okay, notice what he's saying. He's like, man, you know, I just had to, I had to make myself transgress. No, Saul, you needed to make yourself obey, but it's very easy to transgress against God. And so he says, I forced myself, therefore, again, not taking responsibility for the decision you made to disobey God and take a position you ought not take. In verse 13, And Samuel said to Saul, thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. Okay, another question. Could Jesus Christ, in theory, in theory, could Jesus Christ have come through the lineage of King Saul? I know we're talking theory, all right? But if God would have established King Saul's kingdom forever, what's that mean? That would have been the kingdom. And the potential was there for Saul to have God's blessing upon him. The potential was there for him to have had an established kingdom. But he transgressed against what God desired him to do. So he could have been blessed. And I love this in the word of God, in statements like this, the potential. if this had happened, this is what would happen. God knows, and God would have blessed, and God would have given grace, but the if wasn't followed through. And so, consequences, verse 14. But now thy kingdom shall not continue. Why? The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart. Somebody that would just be close to God. And the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee. Okay. Pragmatic thinking, which means, pragmatism is if it works, do it. Right, you understand that? CCM, Contemporary Christian Music. I had a minister say to me, you know, as I called him, I talked to him about our position and things about that. He said, well, listen, he said, I will go and preach at a Contemporary Christian Music concert. And this past year, 20 people got saved. Okay. But what about the Bible? And what about what the Bible says about separation? What about what the Bible says about music? What about what the Bible says about being different from the world and coming out from the world in these things? And it's just this, pragmatic thinking is not biblical thinking. If it works, do it. No, wait a second, where in the Bible does it say, if it works, do it, or if it reaches a good outcome, therefore it's good, or if it appears that God has blessed it. And by the way, does the gospel work? Yes. Will the gospel work anywhere at any time? Yes. Could it be that somebody in an unjust way could preach Christ and people could be saved? Yes. Paul said, hey, I'm preaching Christ. in prison, and there's other people preaching Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but I rejoice either way that Christ is preached. And people would hear that preaching and go, they're preaching against Christ, but what's that about? They might study it out, they might get saved, but that doesn't mean preaching against Christ is the right way to preach. Pragmatic thinking says, if it works, I do this, but that is not a biblical thinking. And so let me put it this way. We reason from scripture to life, and not from life to scripture. Does that make sense? We reason from scripture to life, not from life to scripture. I don't go based on experience or an event and say, therefore I do. I go to the word of God and say, what does God say about this? And what does God want me to do? Saul was looking at what pragmatic people would say. I've got to do this. This is going to work. This is going to glorify God. It didn't glorify God. It got Saul cast down because of that. You know, with regard to that, if I do that, will I justify what I do? In other words, if somebody is pragmatically thinking about something and doing something in a pragmatic way, will they have a reason why they're doing it? Help me out, I know the answer must be obvious. Yes, right? Does that make sense? I mean, it doesn't make sense that somebody would do something and not have a reason why they do it. But listen to these verses. The way of a fool is right in his, Own eyes. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Proverbs 21, two, every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondered at the heart. The heart is, you know, it's not, what do I think is right? It's what does God say is right? If we do what we do because it's logical and not biblical, then what? We're on very dangerous ground. And so what Saul did, he did what was logical, but it was not biblical and therefore he violated the word of God and God would judge him accordingly. So he began by disobeying God and offering a sacrifice. Secondly, he disobeyed God and not destroying what God said to destroy. He disobeyed God and not destroying what God said to destroy. 1 Samuel chapter 15, verse one. Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel, now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus said the Lord God of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. I got a question for you. Can God pronounce judgment? Yes. See, sometimes in the Bible, you might read a story like that and say, oh, that's horrible. How could you destroy the men and the women and the children? But let me say this, God is God and God is all wise and God knows exactly what he's doing. And God absolutely has the authority to pronounce judgment, complete judgment upon an ungodly nation that had hardened their heart against God and have rejected God. God can do that at any point. God's going to do that. In the tribulation, there are gonna be men, women, and children that die at that time because the hardness of men's hearts is so against God. And when God does that, is God loving? Yes, he is. Is he just? Yes, he is. And everything about that is above board and God is righteous in doing that. So we see his righteousness here in saying, annihilate these people. In verse four, and Saul gathered the people together and numbered them into lame, 200,000 foot men and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek and laid wait in the valley. And Saul came into the Kenites. He said, go depart, get you down from among the Amalekites. Now, this is mercy. These people were joined with the Amalekites, the Kenites, they're different people. And Saul says, get out of there, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel. God's mercy. when they come up out of Egypt. So the Canaanites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until they come to Shur, that's over against Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. But everything that was vile and refuse that they destroyed utterly. Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel saying, this is what God said, it repenteth me that I've set up Saul to be king. Now who put him there? God. Isn't that interesting? God put him there. God would have blessed him there. He was a humble man when he started. He could have been used by God greatly. And God says, I'm sorry I put him in that position. For he has turned back from following me. Now, God wasn't surprised by that. Don't think when you read that, oh, God didn't know. God didn't know, but yet God allowed that in his judgment. And hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all the night. Samuel didn't desire his downfall. Samuel didn't desire his rebellion against God. Samuel didn't want a king to begin with, but when a king came, he didn't want the king to fail. This was God's people and he's burdened about it. So he prays all night. It grieved Samuel. All Saul had to do was get rid of what God said to get rid of, but he made a spiritual excuse, and it was not accepted by God. The excuse was this in chapter 15, and I think verse 15. Saul said, they have brought them from the Amalekites, okay, the sound of the bleeding of the sheep. For the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice them to the Lord thy God. and the rest we have utterly destroyed." Okay, what's he saying? He's saying, God, this is spiritual. This is spiritual. I mean, I've got a great desire to worship God. And the people say, hey, let's spare this and worship God. And Sam's like, wait, you did not obey God. And so what do we find about Saul is that he had turned from humility to pride. 1 Samuel 15 verse 17, Samuel said, He says, Saul, look back at your life when you were that, yes, you were a big man, but you were little in your own sight. You looked at yourself and thought, who am I to serve God in this way? That's when God blessed you. That's when God took you and that's when God used you very significantly. But he stopped in his pride, obeying God. And so verse 22, Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, to listen, than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. Okay, witchcraft and idolatry. Are those big sins against God? Yeah. Witchcraft is on the opposite side of God, correct? Idolatry is on the opposite side of God. And what Samuel says is this, rebellion is on the opposite side of God. Rebellion says to God, God, I'm not going to do that. No, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to refuse to do that. And so rebellion and stubbornness are as the sin of witchcraft. Proverbs 29 verse one says, Rebellion is anytime God tells me to do something or not to do something, and I refuse. And I say to God, I see that in the word of God, but I refuse. I will do this or I will not do this, no matter what. And I've heard it recently, a statement that strong. It doesn't matter if this is sin, if this is sin, it doesn't matter. I'm still gonna continue on this path. You know what, that is rebellion against God, and that comes with severe consequences. It's like what the hymn writer wrote, lamenting this desire in the hearts of men, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. You know, that there is in our hearts that which goes astray. It's what Paul spoke about as well. The things that I don't do, I do. The things that I don't want to do, I do. There's a battle there, and we've got to fight and say, you know what, I'm going to obey God. I'm going to yield to God. I'm going to be humble enough to admit that I'm wrong and submit myself to God. Humility is the key. And so Saul, would no longer be the king, and we'll pick it up there, and really that's introduction, isn't it? Because we haven't really talked at all about David. You know, it's interesting in scripture, the times people rebel, and yet they don't get right. Think about Cain. Remember what God said to Cain? He said, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. Was God against Cain? I mean, there's some strong scripture about that, but was God against Cain or was God for Cain? God was against Cain's sin, but God was for Cain. God says, hey, get right, and you could have the blessing, right? It's the same with Saul. Saul could have gotten in a place of righteousness. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. So as we think about Saul here, we're gonna get into David, but this is introduction to the life of David. I would remind us that God could have blessed Saul if Saul had just obeyed God. I mean, it's that simple for us today. God wants to use us. God can use us greatly. What do we need to do? We need to obey God and yield to God. And then I believe God would have restored Saul if Saul would have repented. You see a brokenness in the heart of Saul. You see him weeping and pleading, but you never see a real change of behavior in the life of Saul in getting right with God. And so this morning, are we in that place of humility? Before God, do we say to God, God, you were right, I'm wrong, please forgive me. Show me that in the word of God, show me that in your truth, and I yield. I want to obey you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and God, I'm not worthy to serve you. And God, what do you want me to do with my life? That humility that God can use, and then that quickness to repent and say, well, Lord, I'm sorry, I want to get right with you, and you're right and I'm wrong, please forgive me. And praise God, God could have used Saul. God will use us by his grace if we'll stay in a place of obedient humility towards God, all right? Let's pray and ask God to bless his word. Father, I thank you for the grace that you give. And Father, it's interesting to study in scripture the potential of what you could have done through the life of somebody like King Saul. And Father, I know that you weren't surprised. I know that you had prepared a man that would be a man after God's own heart, and that was David. We praise God for that. But Father, we need to look at the life of Saul and say, you know what? I can learn from that. Pragmatism is not biblicism. Just because it works or the outcome is good does not justify violating the word of God to get there. And Father, I pray that we wouldn't put ourselves in places we ought not be. I pray that we wouldn't disobey you and not getting rid of the things that you say to destroy. And certainly there's a lot of things that could be in our life, Lord, that we don't kill, and you say to kill it, and you say to take care of it. And so I pray, Spirit of God, would you bless the Word of God to our hearts today, help us in our walk with you. Thank you for your help as we've studied this first lesson on the life of David. It's in Christ, and we pray, amen.