00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
We'll read tonight in the book
of 1 Samuel, chapter 13. We'll begin reading in verse
8. 1 Samuel, chapter 13, read down to verse 14. And he carried 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 Saul
said, Bring hither 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. And
Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw
that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest
not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered
themselves together and mickmashed. Therefore said I, The Philistines
will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication
unto the Lord. I forced myself therefore, and
offered a burnt offering. 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.
But now thy kingdom shall not continue, for the Lord has sought
him, a man, after his own heart. And the Lord commanded him to
be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which
the Lord commanded thee. Let's pray. Father, guide us
again. We need our eyes to be open to understand the truth
of thy word, to see the things we need to see, that we might
be better servants for you. And those who are not sure of
salvation might get it settled, and those who are away from where
they ought to be would get back to where they need to be. Guide
us tonight. Work on our hearts. We thank
you, we love you, and we ask it in Jesus' name. I want to
preach to you for a few moments tonight about God's valentine. The Bible tells us here that
when King Saul disobeyed the Lord, God sought him a man after
his own heart. That man, as we know, was David. So we can look at the life of
David. And we can see God's valentine, we can see, and we know the Bible
teaches that God loves all men, for God so loved the world. But
he especially loves those who fit this category, this characteristic
of David, a man after God's own heart. Now when we look at David's
life, we find that David praised the Lord often. Often he praised
the Lord. He was a man that had continual
praise for the Lord. If you look in 1 Chronicles 23
and verse 5, notice what the scripture says here. Moreover,
4,000 were porters and 4,000 praised the Lord. with the instruments which I
made," said David, to praise the 4,000 instruments he made,
so that they could use them to praise the Lord. David was a
man of praise, and if you look in 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 6,
2 Chronicles 7, verse 6, And the
priests waited on their offices, the Levites also, with instruments
of music of the Lord, which David the king had made to praise the
Lord, because his mercy endured forever, when David praised by
their ministry, and the priests sounded trumpets before them,
and all Israel stood. You can read the Psalms and you
can just read through the life of David. He was a man of praise. He was really caught up in this
thing of praising the Lord. If you look in 2 Samuel 23, verse
1. Now, these be the last words
of David. David the son of Jesse said,
And the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of God,
of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel said,"
the sweet psalmist of Israel, the majority of the psalms were
written by David, not all of them were, but the majority of
them were, "...their songs of praise to the Lord." He was a
man who was caught out in praising the Lord. If you look in Psalm
chapter 9, Psalm chapter 9 and verse 1. The 9th Psalm verse
1. Psalm 9 verse 1. Here it says, I will praise thee,
O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvelous
works. Praise the Lord with his whole
heart. He was caught up in how wonderful
his God is. David was caught up in that.
He was a man who praised the Lord often. Look in Psalm 138. and verse 1, Psalm 138, verse
1. There are so many of the psalms
that we could look at that were written by David. I will praise
thee with my whole heart before the gods, for I sing praise unto
thee. He was caught up in his God. And then if you just hold your
place there in Psalm 138 and go to Hebrews, Hebrews 13 and verse 5, the Bible
says to us, Hebrews 13 and verse 5, let your conversation Verse 15 is the verse I want. But by him, therefore, let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is,
the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Remember
now that David was a man after God's own heart. And when we
study his life, he was a man who was caught up in praising
the Lord. And the Bible tells us that we
ought to be doing the same. Continually our lips ought to
be thanking and praising him. So many of the days we go through,
our days we're down and gloomy and we're thinking about all
of our problems and woes and we forget to be thankful and
to praise our Lord. Sometimes we even lose that song,
you know, we don't sing like we ought to sing and praise the
Lord throughout our days. David praised the Lord often.
Remember, he's a man after God's own heart. Secondly, we notice
about David that he made much of the word of God and obedience
to it. Go back to Psalm 138, verse 2. to word thy holy temple, and
praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth, for thou hast
magnified thy word above all thy name." Magnified thy word
above all thy name. David was a man who magnified
the word in his own life. He did that. He made much of
the word of God. Look in 1 Kings 15, and verse
5, and what the Bible says about him here in 1 Kings 15, verse 5. The Bible
says, "...because David did that which was right in the eyes of
the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded
him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah
the Hittite." When he went into Bathsheba and he had Uriah killed,
that's the only time the Bible says that he really got off course.
But we find that the Psalms record his repentance. He was quick
to repent and to turn from his sin. But David was one who made
much of the word of God and obedience to it. Look what the Bible says
to us in John Chapter 14, along this same line. of the word of God, and thinking
about a man after God's own heart. John 14, verse 21. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him. and will
manifest myself unto him." Notice that. The word of God is very
clear. That's verse 21, verse 22, "...Judas
saith unto him, Not ascertain it, Lord, how is it that thou
wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus
answered and said unto him, If a man love me, He will keep my
words, and my Father will love him and will come unto him and
make our abode with him." You see, David was a man after God's
own heart, because he made much of the word of God and obedience
to it. Look in Isaiah 66. The Bible
teaches the same for us. to our Lord if we make the word
of God special in our life. Look at it in Isaiah chapter
66 and verse 2. For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But
to this man will I look. even to him that is born of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." That's the one he
says he'll look to. Special. God's valentine. He
was a man after God's own heart. He was a man who praised the
Lord often. He was a man who made much of
the word of God and obedience to it. Look in 2 Samuel 22. And in 2 Samuel 22, verse 20, here's what it says. He brought me forth also into
a large place, he delivered me, because he delighted in me. Why
did the Lord delight in him? He explains it. The Lord rewarded
me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of
my hands hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways
of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all
his judgments were before me, and as for his statutes I did
not depart from him. I was also upright before him
and have kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore the Lord
hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according
to my cleanness in his eyesight." So David was one who made much
of just keeping the word of God and living by the word of God
and obedience to the word of God. That's why he was a man
after God's own heart. Now, Saul, if you go back to
our text in 1 Samuel, Saul did not do that. He did not obey. Let's take a look at Saul here
in chapter 13 just for a moment. Verse 11 of 1 Samuel chapter
13 says, get in the right chapter here,
I'm in 2 Samuel, 1 Samuel 13, and Samuel said, What hast thou
done? And Saul said, Because I saw
that the people were scattered from me. And when you look at
him, And what he had to say, and you read on through this
chapter, you find that Saul was blaming the people, but it was
actually Saul's fault. He's the king. He can order the
people to do what they need to do. He doesn't have to let them
be in hiding, like the Bible says, they were scattered and
hiding. He could order them out and bring them out. It was Saul's
fault, but he wanted to blame somebody else. Then he says,
"...and that thou camest not within the days appointed," in
verse 13. Well, he should have waited for
further instructions. But now you know what he's doing.
First he blames the people, now he's blaming the Preacher. He's
blaming the Preacher. Then look what it goes on to
say. and that the Philistines gathered themselves together
at Michmash." Now he's bringing up the Philistines. He's now
dwelling on the problem. He's looking at the problem.
He's not looking at his God, he's looking at the problem.
He's blaming the people, he's blaming the preacher, he's blaming
the problems, and then it says, verse 12, The Philistines will
come down now upon me to gild down, and I have not made supplication
unto the Lord. I forced myself, therefore, and
offered a burnt offering." Now, if you analyze that closely,
now he's blaming God. He's blaming God because of God,
what God has done here, requiring these offerings. So he's blaming
the people, he's blaming the preacher, he's upset because
of the problem, blaming God and Saul. is told by Samuel in verse
13, Thou hast done foolishly, done very foolishly. The Bible
tells us in chapter 15, verse 3, he told him again, Now go
and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and
spare them not. What did Saul do? He didn't obey.
He didn't do it. He kept back the best of the
animals and he took the king alive. of the Amalekites, Agag,
didn't do what he was supposed to do. As a result, we go down
to 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 than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the
sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also
rejected thee from being king." See, Saul, he didn't have respect
for the word of God, he blamed everybody else for his problems,
and he didn't listen to the word of God. He should have patiently
waited and followed the word of God. When things don't go
the way we think they ought to go, we need to learn that thing
of wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord. That wasn't what God
was looking for. He was looking for someone who
would be obedient to his word. David praised the Lord often.
He was obedient to the word of God. I think many of the Psalms
were probably written while he was out there. In his mind they
were written. I don't know when he penned them
down, but in his mind they were probably written while he was
out there caring for the sheep before he ever became king of
Israel. He was a man who had learned
to praise the Lord, a man who made much of the word of God
and obedience to it. And then thirdly, David trusted
the Lord even in hard times. Look in Psalm 28 and verse 7. Psalm 28, verse 7. Here's what the Bible says concerning
this. In verse 7, he said, "...the
Lord was my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him, and
I am helped." Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my
song will I praise him. He was one who had learned to
trust the Lord, even in hard times." You remember in 1 Samuel
30 when the Amalekites came in to Ziglag and took all of his
possessions, his wife and his possessions, the men were out
to go to the battle when they came back. They weren't allowed
to go to the battle with the Philistines. They came back.
You remember everything was gone. But the Bible says that David
encouraged himself in the Lord. David's life was not a sheltered
life. Sometimes when we hear preaching
about trials and difficulties and troubles in our life, we
say, well, those people just don't know what it is to suffer.
David did not live a sheltered life. It hadn't been green pastures
and beside the still waters for him all the way through. It hadn't been that way. He had
dipped down into dreary canyons at times in his life, and he
had been up over the rugged mountains in his life. More than one tempest
had come upon him. There were rude winds that had
pounded him with their cruel fists. If you read the story
of David's life, numerous times he had come face to face with
calamity after calamity. It was a rough life. His face
had been wet with hot tears that gushed down many times. David knew what suffering was. And he said, it is good for me
that I have been afflicted, because he would learn the statutes of
the Lord. He would learn to trust his God.
You know, sometimes we go through great difficulties and we kind
of pull back in our little corner somewhere and we think everybody
else doesn't understand. But you know, when trials come
When the difficult times come into our life, there's three
areas of action that we can take. First of all, we can surrender.
We can just surrender. I've seen many people do that.
When I was out last year and preached the revival in Oklahoma,
there was a woman out there that had lost her baby, and she would
not respond hardly to anybody. She wouldn't talk. She just pulled
back in her corner. kind of went out of living. That
is no way to respond to trials. When you've lost a baby, you're
going to see the baby again in heaven, and if you just trust
God, he'll give you more. But yet she didn't see that.
She just decided to surrender, and through the years as a pastor,
I've seen many people do that when difficult times come, is
surrender. Where are they? They're out of
church, they're sitting at home, they've given up on God because
it's just too rough and too tough, too many trials, too many problems. So the first thing we can do
is surrender, like so many do. Or secondly, we can become hard
and cynical. I've seen a lot of people do
that. They don't have no more joy. They've been through problems
and difficulties, and they have no more joy, and they're just
kind of zombies, walking around zombies. You talk to them, and,
yeah, I know, I know. You have to baby them along.
You have to kind of crod them along in life, because, oh, it's
so hard for me. We can take that approach if
we want. We lose our joy, life becomes dreary, we're hard and
cynical. Or, we can be like David, a man
after God's own heart. He turned his losses into gain. He was the type of man who turned
pain into praise. That's what he did. He turned
pain into praise. If you study his life, he was
a man that took the hard times and through them, he trusted
his God, he praised his God, and he determined to continue
to serve his God. And as a result, God brought
him through. And as he wrote, God delivers
us from all our afflictions in Psalm 34. It's like the Apostle
Paul. said the things that had happened
to him fell out to the furtherance of the gospel. All the trials
and difficulties he went through, and his goal was to preach the
gospel in Rome, but you know what it took to get him to Rome?
It took the Persians to get him there. Paul realized that. You find Paul's life, he's praising
the Lord through the midst of the storms. A man after God's
own heart, David trusted the Lord even in hard times. And then number four, there's
seven of them I'm going to give you, so I'm going to hurry through.
David was a man of prayer. You can read that in Psalm 34
and verses 15 through 17. A man of prayer. The Bible teaches
that that's what we ought to be. Men and women of prayer,
1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 12. Philippians chapter 4 verses
6 and 7, it says, And the peace of God that passeth all understanding
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Do you
know where that peace of God that passes understanding comes
from? From being a prayer, from being a person that learns to
pray, and to pray as we ought to pray. David was a man, when
you study his life, he was a man of prayer. Not only that, when
you study his life, David, number five, was not easily offended. He was not easily offended. Boy, this man, when you read
and study about them, in Psalm 119, some say we don't know for
sure who wrote the 119th Psalm, but when you read it and look
at it, and you read David's other psalms, it appears to me that
David was very probably the author of the Psalm 119. And in verse
165, it says, "...great peace have they that love by law, and
nothing shall offend them." Not easily offended. Well, you can
read that in 1 Samuel 25, verses 32-33, and his reaction to Nabal
there. That was one time in his life
when he was determined to take vengeance. Remember, Abigail
came out there and I stopped him and he realized this is wrong. I was going to take vengeance
myself. I should have let God handle it. But if you study his
life, it was characterized that he was not easily offended. Remember how he dealt with King
Saul? He had several opportunities to kill King Saul, but what did
he do? He said, I'll not put my hand
against the Lord's anointing. I won't do that. I won't touch
the Lord's anointing. He was just a man that was not
easily offended. Remember when Shemai was cursing
David when he was fleeing from his own son Absalom? Shemai was
over there on the other side, yelling and cursing David. You remember Abishai? He said,
Let me go over there and take off his head! That's the way
most of us react. But David said, No, we're not
going to do that. We're not going to take off his
head. When Chimei came back after David was restored to the kingdom,
Abishai wanted to kill him again. David said, No. We'll let God
handle that. He was a man who was not easily
offended and did not take vengeance. Number six, David was God's servant. Look in 2 Samuel 33, verse 18. This is a good one, of the characteristic
of David. That's in 2 Samuel 3, verse 18,
if I've got the right reference written down here. Now, then doeth, for the Lord
hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant I will
save my people, Israel, out of the hand of the Philistines and
out of the hand of all their enemies. My servant David. That's what the Lord called him,
my servant. Well, in the Bible we look at
this thing of my servant, and we find several people that are
called my servant, but nobody is called my servant as much
as David. Twelve times it says, my servant
David. Ten times it says, thy servant
David. One time it says, his servant
David, and eleven times it says, David my servant. Thirty-four
times David is mentioned as the servant of the Lord in the scripture. There were others that were called
his servant. Abraham was called my servant,
but he was also called the friend of God. Moses was called my servant,
Caleb, Job, Isaiah, Eliakim. Jacob, Nebuchadnezzar, Zerubbabel,
who brought the first remnant back from Babylon, and then he
said, My servants, the prophets, which would include Daniel and
all those prophets. And then Jesus is called My servant. And then you and me. Did you
realize that? Look in Isaiah chapter 43 in
verse 10. Isaiah 43, verse 10. He says, You are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that ye may
know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there
was no God formed, neither shall there be here after me." So he
says that his witnesses are his servants, those who witness about
the Lord testify for Then look in John 12, and verse 25. He that loveth his life shall
lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him
follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If
any man serve me, Him will my Father honor." So you see, we're
his servants, too. We have the opportunity to be
his servant. We can obey his commandment to love one another.
We can obey his commandment to preach the gospel to every creature. We've been told to go with the
gospel. It was our Lord that gave us
that commandment in all four gospels, to be witnesses for
Jesus Christ. And the Bible says in Romans
10, how shall they hear without a preacher? How are they going
to hear if they haven't been told? How are they going to hear
the gospel story, the simple gospel story that God created
us and man fell into sin and because of his sin he will face
an eternity in a lake of fire because God is just and the punishment
for sin is the lake of fire. Hell is so clearly taught in
the scripture. When you study the Bible, Jesus
had more to say about hell and hellfire than any other speaker
in the Bible. He warned against it. He warned
that it was coming for those who failed to put their faith
and trust in him. And the Bible says that if thou,
that's important to understand. Thou is singular. It means you
must do it. You can't trust this Calvary
Bible Baptist Church to save you. If your trust is in the
Calvary Bible Baptist Church, if your trust is in the Baptist
faith, you are headed for hell. No church can save. No church
has the power to save. Only Jesus can save. And he says
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, thy is singular as
well. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth, you must do it. For, Lord Jesus, and believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." And Jesus told the woman at the well very clearly. If you look in John Chapter 4,
he said to her in John Chapter 4, And verse 10, Jesus answered
and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God," okay, we're
listening to Jesus here. You're not listening to Floyd
Lederbaugh, you're not listening to a Baptist preacher. You are
listening to the word of God and to Jesus the Savior himself. Jesus answered and said unto
her, If thou knewest the gift of God. Well, what is the gift
of God? Romans chapter 6 and verse 23
says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life. So we know what the gift of God
is, it's eternal life. He said that thou knewest the
gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me a drink.
He'd ask her for a drink of water from the well. He told her, you
need to know who it is that's talking to you. Who was it? It
was Jesus. She recognizes that on down in
the chapter. She realizes that. That it was
Jesus, the Savior, the Messiah, who was talking to her. She didn't
at this point. And he said, if she knew who
it was, well, we know who it was, Jesus. Romans 6.23, the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. He said, if you knew this, if
you knew what the gift of God is and you knew who it was that
was talking to you, he said, thou wouldest have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water. You see, in Matthew
chapter 7, there are many people who stand before the Lord, and
he says, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew
you. You never came to ask. You say, well, I go to church,
I've been confirmed in the church, I'm a member of the church, I've
gone. No, that doesn't cut mustard with God. It is only personal
faith in Jesus Christ that will save us from our sins. Thou wouldst
have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. And Jesus said in John 5.24,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, half everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."
Personal faith in Jesus Christ. Not a member of the Baptist church,
not a member of any church. Personal faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus established the church
so that we could learn the teachings of the word of God, not salvation. And so David was God's servant. He served the Lord. And we have
that responsibility to serve the Lord as well and to preach
the gospel. I've been trying since we are
live streaming our messages to make the gospel plain because
we don't know where it's going to go out there. Make it clear,
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. Whosoever believeth in him, personal
faith. So David was God's servant. And finally, number seven, David
was not selfish. I don't have time to go into
these references, but 2 Samuel 23.16 and several others David was not a selfish man.
He was always giving. There was a time I read their
history, and I'm sure you've read it too, where he gave a
good piece of flesh, a flagon of grape juice to everybody in
Israel. Whoa! Think about that. If we tried to do that to everybody
here in the United States, we'd be broke. We'd be out of business. But David was a very unselfish
man. And the Bible tells us in 1 Peter
5 and verse 5, very clearly here, 1 Peter 5.5. 5. Likewise, ye younger,
submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one
to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the
proud. and giveth grace to the humble. So there you have it. There's
God's Valentine. Do you want to be specially loved
of the Lord? I know all of us at this time
of year, we have some Valentines. We like to give out Valentines,
and there are some people that are just extra special to us
that we really love. We can say that we love others,
yes, but we just specially love them because of the way they
do and are. If you want to be God's special
valentine, there you have it in the life of David. He was
always praising the Lord. He tried to live by the word. He trusted the Lord no matter
what came into his life. He was praying always. He was
not easily offended. He was a servant of the Lord,
and he was unselfish. God's special valentine, a man
after God's own heart. It ought to bring to us conviction
about our own lives that we would love the Lord with all our heart
and soul and mind and be God's valentine. Let's pray. Father,
work on our hearts tonight that we might be more for you, we
might love you more that we might be determined to serve you more
and be the servant of the Lord. I always remember what my brother-in-law
said there out in Oklahoma when he told me one time, he said,
when I stand before the Lord, I'd like to hear him say, my
servant John, Instead of, well done thou good and faithful servant,
I would like to hear him say, my servant John, Father, help
us to live our lives in such a way that we would truly be
your servants. This Valentine's season, help
us to determine to make you our special Valentine, to live for
you and serve you like we should. And for those who are here tonight,
not sure they're saved, help them to get it settled tonight.
We thank you and we love you, and we ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen. Let's stand together and go and
sing the invitation song and if you're here tonight not sure
God's Valentine
| Sermon ID | 22411121464 |
| Duration | 39:36 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |