So in chapter 11, two chapters
ago, we saw that Saul had led the nation of Israel in a great
victory against the Ammonites. And there was a great celebration
after that. They won a spectacular victory
over them. And Saul was very instrumental
in that. And they celebrated him. And
they rejoiced that he was king and that And I imagine no doubt
that the people, I would suspect most of them, have begun to think
that it wasn't going to turn out too bad, maybe. That they
had rejected the Lord as their king and demanded a man to be
their king. Even though the Lord and his
prophet rebuked them for it, they're beginning to think maybe,
you know, this is going to be all right. Chapter 11, but we
begin in this chapter chapter 13 to see some of Saul's true
colors And notice that in chapter 11 verse 6 we see why Things
were the way they were in chapter 11, and this is important Verse
6 and the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those
tidings of the Ammonites and taunting the men of Jabesh Gilead
and saying, yeah, we'll make a covenant with you. Just let
us put your right eyes out and then we'll treat you real good.
You know, it was a mockery. And the Spirit of the Lord came
upon Saul and said, Saul said, when the Spirit of the Lord came
upon him, this ain't gonna happen. And he went on a rampage. And he saved the men of Jabesh
Gilead and probably all of Israel. through God's instrumentation.
But in chapter 13 you won't find those words, the Spirit of the
Lord came upon Saul. And that's why you see a difference. Not a whole lot good happened
in chapter 13. It didn't say there in chapter 11
that the Spirit of the Lord was with Saul It doesn't say there
that the Spirit of the Lord was given to him. It just says the
Spirit of the Lord came upon him for a time, for a little
while. And this is an important lesson.
God manipulated Saul and used him to save the people out of
some real trouble. The Ammonites were going to be
a problem. But Saul himself is seen in chapter
9 He seemed to be incompetent. His father sent him and a couple
of servants to find the lost doggies. They got nowhere with
that. And Saul's attitude was, they're
nowhere. You remember him saying that?
They're not anywhere. Yeah, they are. You just can't find them.
You're incompetent. In chapter 10, he seemed to be
a coward. When they're trying to crown
him king, he's hiding somewhere. In chapter 12, Saul's manner
of rallying the people, even in one of his brightest moments,
when he did say, the Ammonites aren't getting away with this.
We're going to do something about it. Do you remember how he motivated
the people of Israel? He slaughtered a bunch of oxen
and sent out pieces of them and said, this is what's going to
happen to you, to your oxen, unless you come and fight. We've
got a fight on our hands and you're going to be in on it whether
you like it or not. So he rallied the people with
brutal coercion rather than inspiring them. You know, if the right leader rallies troops
to battle, the troops will fight. Why wouldn't we? There's a good
cause. Let's go do this. If there was any honor and integrity
in it, but it wasn't that way. He had to coerce them. Or felt
like he needed to. That was his manner of doing
it. And then in chapter 13 here, we see how that he has no regard
for the word of God. You've rejected the commandment
of God, Samuel said. And particularly, as it pertained
to Christ. The priesthood and the offering.
the office of Christ, the mediatorial, priestly prerogative and necessity
of the Lord Jesus Christ was despised by Saul. And all of
these character traits that we've seen in Saul correspond to the
free, free from the restraints of God, free from submission
to God, free from any influence really of God and His Word, the
free will and religion of man that Saul represents in his reign. All these characteristics. The
first one we talked about was incompetence. Man's way is not
going to get the job done, is it? It's just not going to work.
To try to work your way, to try to please God with what you do,
anything you do or don't do, it's not going to cut it. That
which is lost is not going to be restored that way. The lost
donkeys aren't coming home because you're incompetent. You're powerless. When we were without strength,
Christ died for us because we needed him to. We had no power
to do anything. That which was lost, namely fellowship
and favor with God, can never be found and restored by the
will and the way, the religion of the flesh. Secondly, he was
a coward. Cowardice is selfishness, self-interest. I'm not going to step up because
I've got too much to lose. It might not turn out well for
me. Man's religion is all about self-interest, isn't it? Cowardly,
hiding from God behind a tree and sneaking our way around the
things of God, being subtle like our father the devil by nature. Religion is all about the flesh,
my flesh, my comfort, my security, my prosperity. David, the king
after God's own heart, faced Goliath when nobody else would.
Saul, the people's king, was hiding out when they were trying
to make him king. These are the two religions,
man's and God's. Man's religion is spineless and
self-serving. Thirdly, man's religion achieves
allegiance and cooperation through threats and bribes. They cut
up the oxen, don't they, and send them out. You're going to
go to hell. If you don't straighten up, you've
got to do this, this, and this, and go down the Roman road and
say this and do that. Don't do that, or God will put
you in hell. He loves you now. He doesn't
want to put you in hell, but he will if you don't straighten
up your act. Those men in the text, they fought
because they didn't want Saul to kill their oxen. In religion,
people do what their religious leaders tell them to do because
they don't want to go to hell when they die. Same principle
exactly. It's coercion. It's brutal coercion. Love has absolutely nothing to
do with it. They didn't go because they loved
their country or they loved their leadership. They went because
they didn't want their oxen to be slaughtered. And then the fourth thing, religion
clearly, like Saul, has no regard for what God said. God said,
Jacob have I loved thee, so have I hated. And religion says God
loves everybody. You can't hardly disregard the
word of God any more plainly and brutally than that. They say they're preaching the
word of God, but it doesn't in any way resemble the true message
of scripture. And in the symbolism of what
Saul did here, God's book says that the priest alone, Christ
alone can offer sacrifice that is pleasing to God for sinners.
But Saul, that's the whole message of the book. You've got one hope.
There's one name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. Only Christ, God's great high priest, can offer
a sacrifice that God will accept on behalf of his people. But
what did Saul say? I got this. Samuel ain't showing
up, so I'll just take it. I'll handle it myself. We'll
be saved here. We'll have a good outcome here
based on what I do, not God's priest. We don't need God's priest. I'll take care of it. I got it. Exact same thing free will religion
does. It's what we do that makes the
difference. false foolish Sam you said you've done foolishly so a couple years go by and Saul
begins to mess up in earnest his character who he is begins
to really start bearing some some bad fruit and I want to
make a point here The people, as I said, after Saul went on
a tear and defeated the Ammonites, many of them, I'm sure, were
likely thinking, see there? This is what we wanted a king
for. That's why we rebelled against Samuel and said, you know, no,
we want a king. We want somebody to lead us into battle. And look
there, he did. Think with me now. To lead us
into battle, to stir us up. Who else would have done anything
about the Ammonites there and how they treated The Israelites
and Jabesh Gilead. Nobody else was stepping up.
The Ammonites would have destroyed them and then come and dealt
with us too. It would have been a disaster
if it wasn't for Saul. See there? It's good that we have a king.
What the people didn't know is that God put his spirit in Saul.
God saved them in spite of Saul in spite of all of his weakness
and cowardice and sneakiness and selfishness and Foolishness
disregard for the Word of God He God saved him and in chapter
14, we're gonna see how God's gonna save them out of this mess
to the mess that we read about in chapter 13 and God's gonna
save them again, in spite of Saul's blunders. And yet, there's earthly religion
again, isn't it? Trust in the flesh, it appears,
you know, as though the flesh is prevailing. It appears that way to them. They take courage and encouragement
from the fact that so many believe that nonsense that they
preach. It looks like a win to them.
But think about it this way too. This is God's people in this
world. This is God's grace upon us. In spite of the blunders
and the impotence and the foolishness of our flesh. God works all things
to keep us safe. In spite of our willful flesh
and the self-righteousness of our own nature, God sent his
true high priest into this world. As Samuel comes and sets things
straight in our text, God sent his true high priest into this
world to set things straight in reality, not in picture. He came to represent us and to
offer himself for us. And we were saved by him in spite
of us. And that's clearly pictured here
by what's going on in Israel at this time. So Saul shows just
his incompetence here in this chapter. He divides up the men
of Israel. We see in the first several verses
here He chose him 3,000 men, and he sent another 1,000, I
think it said, with Jonathan. And then everybody else, he said,
just go home. This will be all right. They're surrounded by
enemies. It's a volatile and dangerous time for Israel. They've
got powerful enemies. And there were 330,000 men in
Israel who were able to fight. We saw that in chapter 11. But he sent 95% of them home. Instead of them training, they
were in their tents. Instead of them being ready and
prepared, they were out of the fight. And though we know that
they had 330,000, and though we know that Israel's enemies
were strong and many and surrounding them, Saul puts together a relatively
small army and tells everybody else to go home and then provokes
the enemy by attacking and defeating a small band of the Philistines
in Geba. All that we saw there in verses
1 through 4. I wonder why Saul would send all of them home. It looks like to me he sent over
300,000 men to their tents. when their enemies were rattling
their swords. The Philistines were always a
problem. You reckon maybe he just wanted to be liked? You know, y'all just go home,
live your lives. That would correspond with the religion of our day,
wouldn't you imagine? That's speculation, but appeasing the
flesh at the expense of prudence and propriety. The truth, the
reality of the situation. And that would correspond with
the flesh, the religion of the flesh. And I can't think of another
reason why Saul would send everybody home. Can you? I don't know if
that's it or not. What I do know is this. It was
a bonehead move. It was a disaster. Saul was an
absolute disaster. And so the results are disastrous. Verses five through seven. Let's
look at them again. Palestinians gathered themselves
together to fight with Israel. 30,000 chariots now, not 30,000
soldiers. 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen. Well, how many foot soldiers
were there? As the sand of the seashore. It's estimated they had about
300,000 too. I don't know where that came
from, but there was a whole bunch of them. And here Israel is with
4,000 men that are actually trained and ready to fight. And what
happened? The men of Israel saw that they're
in a strait. We're in trouble. For the people
were distressed and the people did hide themselves in caves
and thickets and rocks and in high places and in pits. Some
of the Hebrews even left the country. That's a reflection on the leadership,
isn't it? If our army retreats and acts cowardly and doesn't
fight. Whose fault is it? It's the fault
of the leaders, isn't it? It's the fault of the leaders.
And that's what the problem here. People running and hiding in
caves and hills and fleeing the country and the ones that are
with Saul are scared to death. We saw that, too, when we read
a while ago. And this is man's religion, too. Hiding from God,
motivated by fear, led by incompetence and godless pride. And as we'll
see in the next passage, no hope of victory. No hope of victory. And I say godless. Like I said,
we saw what Saul thought of the word of God. And that's the problem. That's the main problem. And
then it gets worse. Look at verses eight through 10. It gets even
worse. And so Saul went to Gilgal and it says in verse eight, he
tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had
appointed. Now, if you look back at first
Samuel chapter 10, verse eight, let me read it to you. Chapter
10, verse eight, Samuel said to Saul when he was telling him
what was going to happen. He had anointed him to be king
and he's telling him some things that are going to happen. Here's
what he said in verse 8 of chapter 10. And thou shalt go down before
me to Gilgal and behold I will come down unto thee to offer
burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings.
Seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee and show thee
what thou shalt do. And apparently, that wasn't just
a one-time thing. When we were looking at that
before, we were thinking, well, you know, that's just something that happened
at the time. Apparently, that was something that Samuel had
told Saul to do whenever he didn't know what else to do. Whenever
he needed leadership from God, he needed a word from God. He
needed to worship God and hear from God through the sacrificial
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb. He needed to come before
God and commune with God. God, I don't know, what are we
gonna do? We need you to save us. And so Samuel told him, whenever
you get in that situation, I'll meet you in Gilgal. You give
me seven days, I'll be there. We'll offer sacrifice, which
is worship. We're gonna come before God.
And the only way you do that is with the blood of an innocent
victim. By the precious blood of Christ
his son. That's how you come before God
and worship him Atonement is made and we're going to hear
from God. We're going to get direction
from God. We're going to commune with Him and He'll tell us what
to do through His man, through Samuel. I'll tell you what to
do, He said. Oh boy, God's still doing that, isn't He? Not by
the blood of animals and not by prophets, but He still has
spokesmen. And so that's what we read there
in verse 8. But Samuel came not to Gilgal,
and the people were scattered from him. What it says there,
it's not saying he didn't come at all, obviously he did because
we see that happen. But Samuel is thinking, well
I guess Saul is thinking, I guess Samuel's not coming. That's what he's thinking. And
Saul said in verse 9, 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. In other words, he waited the
seven days and then he did it himself. But on that same day,
Samuel came when he said he would. He just didn't come quite early
enough in the day to please Saul. So Samuel came as soon as he
offered that sacrifice. Samuel came and Saul went out
to meet him that he might salute him. So Samuel had said, I'll come
and Saul waited until the seventh day, but not until the end of
the day. He got impatient and what did he do? He leaned on
the arm of the flesh. He did what Abraham and Sarah
did when they weren't having a child. God said, we're going
to have a child, but it's not happening. So go into my handmaid. We'll
help God out. Disaster. The son of the bond woman cannot
live with the son of promise. God don't need our help. Think with me a moment about
what Saul was thinking here. Chris, how do you know what he
was thinking? Well, why would he offer sacrifice when he knew
that he wasn't supposed to? Why would he do that? He said
why. We know what he was thinking because of what he said. He said,
well, we've got problems here. The people are freaking out.
They're scattering. And you didn't come, you didn't show up. And
I had to do something. He's trying to get a happy outcome
here. The enemies are surrounding him. They're setting, they're encamped
against him. The people are, he's trying to get God to do
something. So what does he do? He makes something happen himself. He thought that just the outward
act of religion itself would be effective. Somebody got to
offer the sacrifice. The sacrifice got to be offered.
Not by you, Saul. Not by you. It's not just the
outward act. That's not going to bring about
the desired effect that you are looking for. But in that man's
religion, The means to the end is just to be religious. Religion
itself is the accomplishment. No. That sacrifice isn't going
to help anybody that you gave, that you made. Because it's not
God's ordained sacrifice. It's not the way God said do
it. It's not Christ. And people might mistake this
for honoring Christ. And in religion too. Think about
this. He offered blood sacrifice after
all. What else can that be but a picture
of Christ? In religion you know they do
their sacraments and they have their crucifixes and their statues
of the crucifixion repulsive obnoxious statues of a cross with somebody
on it. Are they not honoring Christ?
Who is that on that plastic cross or that cement cross or whatever
it is? That's, they think, that's God's
Son. And so you could see how somebody
might mistake that and then Saul's case, well he's offering sacrifice,
that's Christ, isn't it? The problem is that God has a
very clear and specific way of honoring his Son in these pictures
and types. And in our day, you know how
God honors his Son? You know how worship is had and
communion and fellowship enjoyed with God himself? By the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He made that pretty clear
in the New Testament, did he not? And he made it real clear
in the Old Testament how he was to be worshipped. He told them
in, if you read through it, it's tedious detail. that the Lord
gave them on how to build everything how to what to coat it with and
how to fashion it and what the dimensions of it were to be everything
that was to be used in his worship and those priests were consecrated
by blood to offer those sacrifices so that they might picture and
represent the Lord Jesus Christ himself God is very clear and
specific and uncompromising in the way that he honors his son.
And it's not in our day by religious ceremonies and rituals that presume
to honor him. They have a form of godliness,
Paul said, but they deny the authority thereof. In other words,
we're preaching in his name and we're doing many wonderful works
in his name. But they're not doing what God
said to do. How are you going to honor God by disobeying him? Paul said those that have that
form of godliness but deny the power, the authority, the sovereignty
of God in it. He said turn away from them,
from such turn away, don't have anything to do with them. Don't
have anything, I can't stress that enough now. Don't have anything
to do with them and don't let anyone you love have anything
to do with them as long as you've got something to say about it. Romans 10 to he said they have
a zeal of God if you asked Saul who you who you offering that
sacrifice to well God You will see in his language in a minute
here a Zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge well, if they don't know then how can it be wrong
because God told him plainly that Samuel didn't say to Saul,
you misunderstood or you just need to learn some things. He
said, you refused the commandment of God. You've rejected the commandment
of God. That's what you did. God told
you the truth. And you can see that Saul knew
it because as soon as Samuel says, what have you done? Saul
knew what he had done, hadn't he? He started making excuses.
He didn't have to say, well, what do you mean by that? No,
he knew what he had done. He knew it was an abomination.
And so he began to make excuses for it. Religion trusts in the outward
ceremony. If this sacrifice just gets offered,
then we'll win this battle against our enemies. If my way of thinking, you know,
if I do what I know to do, regardless of what God said,
we just need to get this sacrifice done, you know. No. We have to trust in the one who
is represented and pictured by these ceremonies and sacrifices.
We trust Him. How do you trust Him? By hearing
what He says and doing it. That's what. We trust Him indeed. We don't just say we trust Him.
The way to trust your parents is by doing what they say. Isn't
it? Submitting to them Honoring them Not saying I trust you and
then go do what you think is the best thing to do Ceremony outward religion itself
being so attractive to the flesh They not only miss the point
of the true ceremonies the true ceremonies, but they invent their
own ceremonies We have God-ordained ordinances
in the church that picture Christ. We take the broken bread and
the poured out wine that pictures His broken body. He said, this
is my body which I'm breaking for you. And likewise, He took the cup
and said, this is the new covenant. This is the covenant that you
can get in on and have mercy with God without you keeping
any of it. The new covenant in my blood, the unconditional covenant
of grace. And it's in my precious blood. And we observe that now. And
baptism, pictures, allegiance to Christ, submission to Christ,
faith in Christ. He's my hope because he died
and was buried and rose again for my justification. I'm alive
now. I was dead to God and alive to
sin. Now I'm dead to sin and alive
to God. And I want everybody to know
about it that cares. But even those ordained ordinances
that God has given are defiled by religion, aren't they? They're
turned into something that they never were intended to be. And
they're added to by religion. There's a whole bunch of ceremonies
in religion now that have nothing to do with those two. in contempt
for the one that is pictured by these things. When you refuse what he said,
you're in contempt of him. It's not that you misunderstood,
Saul. It's not that you need to be taught more. You rejected
God, and so God's rejecting you. That's the message. You reject
his son. He that honoreth not the son,
honoreth not God. So while it may look like Saul
is honoring Christ here, Saul's lack of regard for the Word of
God shows that it was just a ritual to him and not a matter of honoring
the Son of God in his effectual sacrifice for sinners. The sacrifice
ought to have been by faith offered and saying this, not just some
kind of a good luck thing to get us out of this mess we're
in. It's saying this, Lord, you're to be honored in the precious
blood of your son. Whether the Philistines rout
us or whether we rout them, we're going to worship you today. Either
way, like those three Hebrew children, even if our God doesn't
deliver us, we're not going to bow to you and your God. We're
going to bow to him. That's faith. Not just, Lord,
get us out of this. Here's a sacrifice. That's repulsive. That's an abomination to God. Religion loves religion and not
the God that they pretend to serve. They love themselves. It's idolatry. It's idolatry. Just as surely as carving out
a totem pole and dancing around that thing, shouting a bunch
of nonsense. Christian religion is idolatry. It's not complicated, is it?
How many times have I said that? It's God's way or your way. It's not that hard. Except when your will, which
you think is the solution to your problem, is your problem. Until God breaks that will, you're
not ever gonna submit to his. It's gonna be your will, your
way, your works until God breaks you in half and puts you in the
dust and says, we're gonna do things my way from now on, Saul
of Tarsus. Okay, Lord, that's fine with
me. I've goaded you like a mule until
you're Drooling in the dust and I'm gonna call the shots from
now or you just tell me what you want me to do I'll tell you this the point
of rebellion It's us or God it it's man's religion God and the
point where that where that battle line is drawn is the son Christ
Christ in him crucified We killed God's son. We stated pretty plainly
where we stand on the matter. And God, by that very blood that
we shed, has washed us anyway from our sins. That's where he
stands. He has mercy on whom he will
by the very blood that we drew. We're guilty of it. We did what
his hand and counsel determined before to be done, but we're
guilty of it. And so Saul got himself into
a terrible mess here. That's our sin. And then he made
a bad situation worse by disobeying God in the matter of God's way
of saving sinners by the blood of his son. That's our religion,
which is worse sin. The book of 1 Samuel began with
a problem that was caused by Hophni and Phinehas doing what? Defiling the ordained sacrifice
of God. It's always Christ, isn't it?
That's where the battle line is. And here we are now with the
king that represents the people's willful rejection of God as king,
doing the same exact thing, defiling the sacrifice. What does that have to do with
me, Chris? You find out who God's son is and you bow to him and
you honor him in every way that he can be honored. And you don't
let him go until he blesses you. You cry out to God until he shows
you his son. Take heed unto his word, hear
him. Submit to him, believe on him. As we read the other day, just
keep hearing, just keep hearing from him until that day star
arises in your heart. And the day dawns. All of our problems are a result
of willful rejection of God. And our willful rejection of
God is expressed in its fullness by us murdering His Son. I hope that's as clear as a bell.
Every problem we have is because of our willful rejection of God,
and our willful rejection of Him is expressed in its fullness
in our hatred for His Son. The only thing we hate more than
God's law is His grace, and His grace is seen in that precious
blood. We murder, we trampled under
our feet His precious blood. This may have just been a religious
ceremony to Saul, but not to God. Not to God. The sacrifice can only be offered
by God's appointed consecrated high priest, God's way, because
that sacrifice is Christ. And that high priest is Christ. Saul cannot offer the sacrifice
because there's nothing that man can offer to God for sin
that will satisfy God. Only Christ the High Priest,
offering his own precious blood for the sins of his people, will
satisfy God for sin. Hebrews 9, 11, But Christ being
come in high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not
of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. He did it without you. He did it for you. But he did
it without you. It's got to be done for you,
Saul. You can't get yourself out of
this mess. It's got to be done for you by God's ordained high
priest, or you have no sacrifice for sins. And if you have no
sacrifice for sins, you have no hope on any level. A win is a loss if you have no
sacrifice for sins. Even what we call wins in this
world, they're losses if you have not God's sign. Didn't Paul say they were losses
when he saw what they were? He said, even my wins are losses.
I count them all loss for Christ. You do not offer the labor of
your hands as Cain did, Genesis 4, or you will be rejected. You
cannot smite the rock twice as Moses did in Numbers chapter
20, or you will not enter the promised land. Because Christ,
it says he was once offered for sins in the end of the world.
He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Do not defile the
sacrifice. Do not dishonor and reject God
in the matter of his son and his work. You can't touch the
ark, Uzzah, 2 Samuel 6, because that mercy seat represents the
atonement that Christ makes between God and the sinner by the precious
blood that splashed upon that ark. And man has no part in that. That's a transaction between
the father and son, four sinners, and us having any part in it
at all would defile it. So do not touch it. Uzziah, in
2 Chronicles 26, burned incense in the sanctuary on the altar
and God smote him with leprosy. Why? Because it does not pertain
to you. And secondly, to show him what
he is. The reason you can't come in here is because you're a nasty,
vile wretch, a leper. There's nothing that pictures
our sin any more vividly than that. From the sole of our feet
to the top of our head, there's no soundness, but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores. Paul said in 1 Timothy 2.5, there
is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men.
One plus one equals two. It's that simple, isn't it? There's
one God, one mediator between God and men. The man, Christ
Jesus. Unless you're consecrated by
God to represent him, you don't offer sacrifice. Verses 11 and
12, we're going to run out of time, but I thought that was
the most important. But look at what Samuel said,
what hast thou done? And Saul said, because I saw that the
people were scattered from me, And that they all came and started,
look at this. The people, you, the Philistines, he mentions
all three, doesn't he? The only way he mentions himself
is in a good light. He has done the unthinkable.
And he blames the people. The people were cowards. I had
to do something because the people are scattered. I had to do something
because you, Samuel, didn't show up when you were supposed to,
even though he did. And I had to do something because
of the Philistines. He mentions everybody else in
a bad light, but look, therefore said I, the Philistines will
come down upon me to gilgal, and I have not made supplication
unto the Lord. I'm gonna have to worship God.
I'm gonna have to pray. He only mentions himself in a good
light as doing the best he could. I forced myself therefore, and
I did what had to be done. He comes out looking like the
hero in his version of it. And everybody else was a problem.
The people, Samuel, the Philistines. That's religion. What happened
to Adam in the garden happened to every one of us, didn't it?
The wife that you gave me, Satan. Let's blame everybody but ourselves. Oh. We throw up our religion
as being the solution. I did what I could. I did what
I had to do. I had to force myself. I knew, you know, it wasn't what
God said, but it had to be done. Verses 13 and 14, and we'll quit. And Samuel said to Saul, thou
hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment
of the Lord thy God. You see, that's what I was referring
to a while ago. Not, not, well, Saul, you know, you just, you
forgot or, You didn't know you were ignorant or you know You knew what God said and you
rejected it which he commanded you This is between you and God
And so God has rejected you the scripture that came to my mind
when I read that you did foolishly and but look what he said next now thy kingdom shall not continue
verse 14 the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart
and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people
because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee
there's man's religion and God's right there you know what verse
of scripture came to my mind what the law could not do the
commandment is pure and right Paul said in Romans 7 But in
Romans 8, he said the law couldn't save us because of the corruption
of our flesh, because of what we are. But God has a real king. He has somebody that's not going
to reject his word. He has a king after his own heart.
What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh
in for sin, condemned sin, In the flesh when we failed when
we did foolishly when we were cowards and god haters And all
the things we talked about that Saul was God sent his son In
our likeness yet without sin to bear our sins in our place
And save us redeem us Justify us in the sight of God Saul you're
a failure Chris, you're a failure. But God sent his son to do what
we could not and to pay for what we did. What we did condemned us and
what he did condemned our sin. Romans eight. And in the latter
part of that same chapter, Romans chapter eight, Paul tells us
how we are justified by God because it is Christ that died. Saul
is the problem. What's the solution? Another
king. God's true king. A king with
the very heart of God beating in his chest. You see, that was
figurative in the case of David. But in the case of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that's real. Here's a man with the very heart
of God What will a man with God's heart
do? Let's close with this thought
with two answers. What will a man that literally, the man who had
God's heart, what's he going to do? Well, if he's got God's
heart, he's going to do everything God said. He's going to honor
God. He's going to love God. He's
going to worship God. He's going to please God. I'll
tell you what else he's going to do. If a man has God's heart
in his chest, you know what he's going to do? He's going to love
God's people. If there's anything we know about
God's heart, we know this. He delights to show mercy to
sinners like us. And that's what the man with
God's heart did. He came down here and honored
his father and saved us. While we were yet sinners, he
died. He's so loved. that He gave Himself for our
sins. Let's pray.