Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Here's Pastor Ed on Abounding Grace.

Pastor Ed Taylor: David had in his hand a soothing instrument while King Saul had in his hand a deadly weapon. You can just tell what kind of men they were by what they were holding in their hands. In David's hand was an instrument of worship. In King Saul's hand was an instrument of war. In David's hand was an instrument of healing. In King Saul's hand was an instrument for hurt. Why?

David is a picture and a type of a man in the spirit. King Saul is a picture and a type of a man in the flesh. You can always tell where you're at by what's in your hands. You can always tell where you're at by what's in your hands, what's in your mind, what comes out of your mouth.

Guest (Male): You can be sure both inside and outside the church we will have an occasional spear thrown in our direction. It may be in the form of a false accusation, an unkind word, or someone stabbing you in the back. But what is the right response should that happen to you?

Today on Abounding Grace, we'll see what that is as Saul throws a spear in David's direction. David handled it extremely well. It will serve to help us in dealing with hurt in a Christ-like fashion. Pastor Ed Taylor is in 1 Samuel chapter 18 starting with verse 15.

Pastor Ed Taylor: When Saul saw that he had behaved very wisely, he was afraid of him. Another emotion with all these mixed-up emotions that are not from the Lord. But all Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came in before him. What did David do? Did he raise up a people for himself? Did he draw people to himself? Did he publicize that he tried to win over people? All he did was live wisely and faithfully.

And there's a natural attraction to the men and women that are living wisely and faithfully. It's just so different. It can even be so different within the church community where you're just like, "Man, that's just something special." Remember in the New Testament, I don't remember who it was. Was it Nathaniel? Who was it that Jesus said, "You know, there's a guy that's no guile." Who was that? Nathaniel. I mean, just like there's a person that rises to the top and we could pray for that in our lives where we just be with no guile. Just no guile, like God would just use us in these last days.

So Saul's abandoning the Lord and God's abandoning him, removing his protection, allowing the distressing spirit to come back and plague him. You know, God, I believe, puts a protection around all of us. That's what the Bible says. Psalm 91:11 says, "For he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways." Remember Satan's complaint before God according to when he was looking at Job's life? Satan, the devil, was complaining about God's protection.

He put it this way: Satan answered the Lord and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has in every side?" Listen, if he did it for Job, he does it for you and me. That there's a protection, there's a hedging of inside. Even the devil realizes that. Nothing happens outside of the sovereign will of God.

And because we live in a lost and fallen world, a lot of junk happens, a lot of sinfully charged stuff happens, but never thwarting the will of God in our lives. You see, if God's protection wasn't there, Satan would be on us continually. I personally don't think I've ever dealt with Satan face to face. I don't think I'm that important of a person. I've dealt with the demonic realm a lot, but Satan's only one created being, can only be in one place at one time.

Maybe you've dealt with the devil personally. I don't think I ever have. I've had my fair share of demonic oppression and demonic battle. I've seen a lot of ugly things in the spiritual realm. I've experienced a lot of ugly things in the spiritual realm. I've felt a lot of things right in my very presence that this is from the devil. But I don't think I've ever met the devil personally. Nor am I asking to meet the devil personally. So just in case this gets out and the devil hears it, man, I bind you in the name of Jesus. I'm not asking for it.

And yet in our own lives, listen, we can do things, we can be involved in things, and we can expose our things that will open us to the demonic realm. We can be involved in stuff we should never be involved in, especially as believers. I don't see the scripture teaching that a believer can be possessed or partially possessed or demonized. But I do know this: if you're messing around with the occult and you're messing around with the dark things and you're messing around thinking that you can handle it, you're going to be like the seven sons of Sceva where they think they got it all under control in the Book of Acts and instead the demons beat them up and they run away naked.

You're no match for the devil. You're no match for the demonic realm. So don't even go in that direction. Don't even dabble in it. Well, you know, I've done it before and I got away with it. That's the grace of God. That's not permission to try it again. And in whatever you get exposed to, whatever you want to watch in the movies, just stay away from the demonic, stay away from the idolatrous, just stay away from it. Everything that you can possibly see, everything you possibly could know, just stay away from it because we can easily get distressed.

And we can find that the demonic realm, which I believe is real, can cooperate with the weakness of our flesh and cause us great havoc. And I don't want that for you. There are many times in my life when I need to learn to resist the devil. While I haven't met him personally, I don't think, I've seen a lot of his demonic ways and I've seen a lot of his temptations in my life. And the Bible just says resist the devil and he will flee from you.

You just learn to resist it. Whatever's on television, again, you don't want to be influenced by just boom, or the latest witchcraft movie. Oh, it's no big deal. Well, you tell me how your life is getting closer to Jesus. You tell me that. You tell me you're opening yourself up and why you're having these dreams now. Why are you having these dreams? Well, you know, I just went and I got this and I have this and I got this little statue that's in my room now. Man, don't open yourself up.

Yeah, but the dreams will go away. You know, you're opening yourself up and wasting time that is precious and belongs to the Lord. I have to battle sometimes with myself. I have to battle sometimes with my own flesh, the spirit against the flesh, because even opening a, forget about the demonic realm for a second, just think of the emotional realm. You look at this situation with Saul and the singing of the songs and the thousands for me and the ten thousands.

So if something was misreported, that would give us a little bit of sense of that's not right. You know, righteous anger. We could have not all anger is bad. You see something ugly on television like some child being hurt again or you if you're not feeling angry about that then you've been desensitized to evil. But again, we see it so much. It's like, "Oh, another one." And so not all anger is bad because there's a righteousness to anger.

There's a righteousness to stand for what is right in the face of evil. There's a righteousness to take a solid stand and say no, this is wrong and it needs to be made right in the Lord. So there is a righteousness, but think about it. Let's just say something was misreported about you and you know it's not misreported about Saul, he only feels that way. But let's just say something was misreported about you, something was said that wasn't true about you, some piece of gossip or slander.

You were mistreated and it raises up just a little bit of anger. This is wrong. But you have to be careful because if you nurse that anger, it can very easily become something very bad. You know how sometimes we could just say, "I have a right to be angry." Really? You have a right to be angry? Okay, you have to be really careful because we've got to learn to put those things out of our minds. Not only do we need to learn we just need to trust.

You know, I'm angry and I need to trust you, Lord. I trust you when I wasn't angry. I trust you when things were going the way I wanted them to go. I raised my hands in worship when my life was the way I wanted it to be. I was out serving and feeding the homeless, Lord, when things were well in my life, when it wasn't painful, when this family situation didn't come up, when this loss didn't happen.

My hands were up and now, now that I'm faced with this great trial, I have a right. And you just have to be careful because your rights were surrendered to Jesus Christ when you accepted him in this finished work of the cross in your life. And you have to fight it because there is a right, you know, it starts with this righteous anger, but then we have to be careful not to nurse it where it becomes something fleshly, something that controls us.

Something where we're number one not resisting the devil, but also number two we're giving place to the devil. You know the Bible says not to give place to the devil. Not to give an opening to him. You know, as soon as the devil sees a little crack in the door, he's going to slam right through. He's already trying to break down the door right now, and I know I'm speaking figuratively but again using that picture he's just looking for a way to destroy us.

He's seeking, he's roaming about, seeking whom he may devour. That is the path that he's on. And so the Bible says about anger, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26, "Be angry, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil." Saul's giving into this jealousy, he's giving into his anger, he's giving into his pride, and now he's throwing spears. And before you look at Saul and go, "I can't believe what kind of person are you, Saul," you better check your closet and make sure there aren't any spears in it.

Oh, we don't throw spears at people to pin them to the wall anymore, do they? Usually it's words. Those are the spears that are very common. Just words. And maybe they never leave your mouth but they're in your head. So you're a spear thrower in your head, a spear thrower with your mouth, a spear thrower with your actions. And when you throw spears, you are like King Saul. When you and I take things in our own hands and try to control the anointing of God, try to control...

Look, God has already told Saul, every day he rules is a day of grace for him and a day to repent. He says, "One day you're going to lose your kingdom, but for goodness sake, you're in the kingdom now. Be faithful now." But instead, he sees David as a threat, he gives into it, and God's taking his hand of protection away from him. It's almost like God's saying, "You want that attitude? You can have it."

And while King Saul's in the flesh, David is being embraced by the nation. While King Saul is doing all this stuff all over the place and doing his own thing and plotting his own demise really... he thinks he's going to take David out but he's plotting his own demise... the anointed of God is being embraced by the people of God. The anointed of God is always embraced by the people of God, especially with great contrast like King Saul. What a difference, don't miss this.

This is so beautiful as I was studying through the difference that I see. David had in his hand a soothing instrument, while King Saul had in his hand a deadly weapon. You can just tell what kind of men they were by what they were holding in their hands. In David's hand was an instrument of worship. In King Saul's hand was an instrument of war. In David's hand was an instrument of healing. In King Saul's hand was an instrument for hurt.

Why? David is a picture and a type of a man in the spirit. King Saul is a picture and a type of a man in the flesh. You can always tell where you're at by what's in your hands. You can always tell where you're at by what's in your hands, what's in your mind, what comes out of your mouth. Both have been anointed, but one is on his way down and the other is on his way up. And you can always tell if you're on your way up or on your way down by what instrument is in your hand. Wow.

A person who's losing the anointing or diminishing in his calling will throw spears and cut people down with harsh words, will be controlling, loud, boisterous, deceiving, even murderous. You go, "Oh, murderous?" Yeah, Jesus said if you have those thoughts even in your heart. Man, how many of us have murdered in our heart? I dare say most of us, if not all. I certainly don't know your heart, but you do before the Lord as he's revealed to you.

I mean, what's in your hand? You thrown a spear lately? Is that the route that you want to take? You want to be a spear thrower? You've been hurt. You have been wronged. You're living in the midst of it. So is this your response? You're going to throw spears? That's going to solve it? It's just going to destroy you. Your spears will never hit the target. Did you notice? Just a little side note, I love the little things in the scriptures.

In verse 11, just a little side note, David... cast it, it says Saul cast the spear, but then it says David escaped his presence twice. I mean, David is like, "Oh, you missed me, what's next?" You know, you missed me. He's like, "No, I'm faithful to you." You spear thrower. We're going to see that in his life. When Saul threw the spear at David, this one who slew a giant didn't throw it back. You might want to mark that.

You might want to note it. He didn't take it out of the wall, he didn't pick it up and throw it back. When the spear was thrown at David and it missed him, David didn't throw it back. When the spear was thrown at David and it missed him, David didn't throw it back. That's the right response. The right response is to trust the Lord. Trust him. There is a book that we recommend here. It's been a pick of the month every year since we have been a church.

I read it a couple times a year at least. It's a book that's written, the author's name is Gene Edwards, and it is a book that is written on the topic of those that have been hurt. The primary piece of it is hurt within the church because whenever you have people together, you're going to get hurt. And the more you care and the more you serve, the more you're going to get hurt. Just the way it is.

And on occasion, the longer you're around, you might meet a person that throws spears or you might even be a person that throws spears yourself when you're wronged. And so we recommend this book. It's by Gene Edwards, it's called A Tale of Three Kings. I'd encourage you to pick it up. Not even if, just pick it up and start reading it. If you're not in the midst of some battle right now, it's going to be preparation for the future.

And really we don't have enough time to take it all the way through, but we will by the time we finish 1st and 2nd Samuel. In the midst of difficulty, of what type of person do you want to be? And he lays before us three options: we can be a spear-throwing King Saul, we can be a submissive David, or we can be a kingdom-overthrowing Absalom. And what do you want to be? I mean, obviously what do we want to be?

We want to be David, who of among us doesn't want to be David in every wrong that we've ever experienced, especially from people that we loved and we served? Of course. The problem is, as the author so poignantly makes, is there's a little bit of Saul in all of us. Every single one of us. And how careful we need to be. And this is a little picture of that. We're going to continue to see that develop.

But I think he does a great job. It's a very simple book. It's written in very simple language. It's kind of written as a play and just showing, hey, what kind of life do you only get one life to live and soon it'll be past. And only what you done... do you want to go down being known as a spear thrower? That was the best King Saul spear thrower that I ever met at Calvary Chapel Aurora. I hope not.

I hope that we start finding out there's spears being thrown here that we can intervene in your life and help you get back to a place of walking in the spirit. Throwing spears never solves anything. That's why David chooses not to do it. All right, verse 17: Then Saul said to David, "Here's my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you as a wife. Only be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles."

For Saul thought, "Let my hand not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him." Remember Saul promised to give one of his daughters in marriage to the man that killed Goliath? Chapter 17, we learned that last time. That was a promise that was made, but it hadn't happened yet. And with no integrity, Saul doesn't completely keep his promise. Not only that, but he wants to use this promise as a way to now cause David... not now, I'm not going to take David out, I'll let the Philistines do it.

And he says... so David said to Saul, "Who am I? And what is my life or my father's family in Israel that I should be the son-in-law to the king?" But it happened at that time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David according to the promise, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife. So his integrity... he was not man, obviously he's not a man, he's got a lot of problems. And he is a deceiver and a liar and a game player.

Verse 20: Now Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David, and they told Saul and the thing pleased him. So Saul said, "I will give her to him that she may be a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him." Therefore Saul said to David a second time, "You shall be my son-in-law today." Now he expected David to fight the battles of the Lord. So sad because Saul... one of the things you see here with Merab as well as Michal, or Michael some people have a varying pronunciation of her name.

Don't miss the depravity of this man. The deep, deep depravity of this man. You go, "What do you see that?" Well, not only is he a jealous, suspicious, deceiving, spear-throwing king that wants to set up a situation so that David would die on the battlefield. If that wasn't enough, we have a man that's willing to use his own children as a manipulation tool to manipulate someone else. His own kids.

Using this as what we would call this today in the world, we call this a passive-aggressive way of handling something. Now he wasn't always passive-aggressive because he knew how to throw a spear, but the spear wasn't working, so now let's use my kids. I mean, it's really not from the Lord, obviously. Children aren't to be used in that way whatsoever to manipulate someone else's life, and unfortunately we see way too much of it.

He chooses to use his daughter, his own daughter, as a means to get rid of David, to see him die, and he was hoping David would die in battle. Remember back in Genesis as well, it's not something that's unusual. Lot also used his own daughters for selfish means and it's just rank sinfulness. And unfortunately, children are still used today in manipulative, controlling ways, and it's the kids that always pay the price. The ones that are caught in the middle.

So David declines the offer in verse 18. And yet Saul found out and he offers him his daughter Michal, and even then, he wants her to be a snare to him and wants him to die because of her. Verse 22: So Saul commanded his servants, "Communicate with David secretly and say, Look, the king has delight in you and all his servants love you. Now therefore, become the king's son-in-law."

So Saul's servants spoke those words in the hearing of David. And David said, "Does it seem to you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law, seeing I'm a poor and lightly esteemed man?" And the servants of Saul told him saying, "In this manner David spoke." And then Saul said, "Thus you shall say to David: The king does not desire any dowry but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines to take vengeance on the king's enemies."

But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. It's an interesting request, of course, one that's not very common. But there is a war involved, and the idea behind this is he's going to go kill a hundred Philistines on... and if he can bring back their foreskins as a proof of their death, then he gets what Saul promised anyway prior. So when the servants told David these words, it pleased David well to become the king's son-in-law.

Now the days had not yet expired. Therefore David arose and went, he and his men, killed two hundred men of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins and gave them in full count to the king that he might become the king's son-in-law. Then Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife. I mean, that's just a bizarre request, it's a bizarre scenario, but David not only does the hundred, but he does the two hundred, brought them back.

And what a gift he must have counted them one by one for King Saul. Here you go. Not only a hundred, but I did more than enough. I'm a man of integrity. Thus Saul, verse 28, Saul and knew that the Lord was with David and that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him. And Saul was still more afraid of David, so Saul became David's enemy continually.

Then the princes of the Philistines went out to war, and so it was whenever they went out that David behaved more wisely than all the servants of Saul so that his name became highly esteemed. So the Lord is with David. We recognize as we study and if you've read ahead, and I encourage you to read ahead, that David is not a perfect man. We see great characteristics and great qualities in him, but he's not a perfect man.

He too is going to make mistakes. He too is going to be manipulative. He too is going to commit adultery. He too is going to steal someone else's wife. He too is going to set up a murderous scenario on the battlefield. He too has significant issues and yet the entirety of his life he's a man after God's own heart. That should encourage you. It doesn't give us permission to go do crazy things.

It doesn't give... "Well, you know, if I'm just going to go down at the end of my life as a man after a woman after God's own heart, then I'm just going to do..." No, that's not really a man after God's own heart, just kind of doing your own thing and rebelling against the Lord. But living a life that pleases God, living a life just moving in that direction, moving toward the things of God, not throwing your spears back, a man of integrity, a woman that behaves wisely.

Obedient, faithful, does what they're told, goes where they're sent. I mean, those are just great things to be known and we've seen this pattern before as the Lord is with David. He's still... it's very clear that the Lord is with David. And it stirs up strife in the heart of Saul. But it was available to Saul too. He was coveting something that was already his by faith. He wasn't a man of faith either.

David never considered Saul his enemy, but God's anointed. And yet Saul remained David's enemy until the day that he died. David continued to fight the Lord's battles, and the Lord continued to give him great success to magnify his name above the name of Saul and all of his officers. And I believe David paid attention. I think that was a quality in his life, he paid attention to what God was doing in him and for him.

And no doubt the remembrance of these events encouraged him in these difficult times, especially the days where many of the Psalms were written in his exile when he was on the run. Making mistakes even then, we'll find that David was not a perfect man and that God was very gracious to him and he recovered because of his repentance. The more David was exalted, the more jealous Saul became.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Abounding Grace and part of Pastor Ed Taylor's study in 1 Samuel. You can hear it again at aboundinggraceradio.com, oneplace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here in the month of September, we have picked out an excellent book from our friend in the ministry, Ron Rhodes. It's The End Times in Chronological Order.

You'll learn when the important end times events will happen in relation to each other, who the major players in the end times will be, and how to interpret the signs of the times. And we'll send it to you when you support Abounding Grace with a gift of $25 or more today. Reach us toll-free at 877-30-GRACE or go online to calvaryco.store. And thank you for your generous support.

It helps us get the word out on stations like this all across the nation. Large or small, God is using your gifts in great ways. I wish I could share all the emails and phone calls that come in as evidence of that. To make a donation, just visit aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. aboundinggraceradio.com 877-30-GRACE.

Our time together sure goes by quickly, but we're already looking forward to our next study in 1 Samuel right here on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. God bless. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.