? My Savior is my shepherd and
my God ? ? My light, my strength, my joy, my bliss ? ? And I His
grace record ? ? What e'er I need in Jesus dwells ? with treasures rich and free. Mercy and truth and righteousness
? In Jesus Christ the King of grace
? In whom I stand complete ? As through the wilderness I roam
? His mercies I'll proclaim ? And when I say Please be seated. Good morning. Turn with me, if
you would, to Psalm 70. Psalm 70, a Psalm of David to
bring remembrance. Make haste, O God, to deliver
me. Make haste to help me, O Lord.
Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul. Let
them be turned backward and put to confusion that desire my hurt.
Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, aha,
aha. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee, and let such as love thy salvation
say continually, let God be magnified. But I am poor and needy, make
haste unto me, O God. Thou art my help and my deliverer,
O Lord. Make no tarrying. Let's go to
the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, Lord, we
thank you for calling us here this morning. We ask that while
we meet here that you might speak to us, Lord, and that you would
give us ears that can hear your word and hearts that would receive
it. Lord, we ask that you would not
tarry and that you would make haste. Lord, if it be your will,
we ask that you would Give us understanding and ask that you
would be with your people everywhere, Lord, that you would heal those
that need healing. Lord, we think of the Dunbar's
and we think of Jennifer and ask that you would be with them.
Lord, we ask that you would be with your churches across the
country as they go through different trials. It's in his name we pray,
amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing hymn number 175 in the hardback timbrel, number
175. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King Through eternal ages let His praises ring Glory in
the highest I will shout and sing Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living word of God our doubt prevail. Standing on the
promises of God, Standing ? Standing on the promises of God
my Savior ? ? Standing, standing ? ? I'm standing on the promises
of God ? ? Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord ? ? Bound to Him eternally by love strong, oh ? standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing on the promises
of God. standing on the promises of God
my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Please be seated. Abraham is called the father
of the faithful. And in Romans chapter four, the
scripture says he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being
fully persuaded that what he, God, had promised, he was able
also to perform. That's what it means to stand
on the promises of God. Christ Jesus, the Lord, is the
fulfillment of all those promises. All the promises of God are yea,
yes, and amen, sure, in Christ. And Abraham knew that. And he
believed beyond what he could see that what God promised he
would perform. What did he promise? He promised
the salvation of his people. What did he perform? The salvation
of his people. Oh, I understand a couple of our
AC units aren't working right now, so we'll get them looked
at this week, but hopefully it won't get too hot in here. Would you open your Bibles with
me to 1st Samuel chapter 10. 1st Samuel chapter 10. I've titled this message King
of Kings. King of Kings. I also thought about titling
it Christ, our King. Either way, the Lord Jesus Christ
reigns sovereign over all the kings of this earth. And I hope
this morning that he will be pleased to reveal the glory of
his reign to our hearts. We know that in the volume of
the book, it is spoken of him. We know that the characters that
are described to us in the Bible are given to us oftentimes to
picture the glory of Christ. Surely that's true in King Saul. The last two Sundays, we have
considered King Saul as the man that God gave to Israel because
of their unbelief. God gave this man to Israel in
judgment, in judgment. There's a verse of scripture
in these chapters that speaks of God giving Samuel another
heart. and there is a verse of scripture
that speaks of Saul, I'm sorry, of Saul prophesying. I would
just remind you that in the Old Testament there were men like
Balaam who spoke the word of God who were false prophets but
God put his word in their mouth. In the New Testament, Ananias,
the high priest who hated Christ and was complicit in the crucifixion
of Christ, spoke prophecy when he said, one must die for the
nation. And so here we have the Lord
putting into the mouths of men who do not know him and are not
the prophets of God, words of truth. So let us not confuse
Saul as prophesying as a prophet of God. And the scripture doesn't say
that God gave Saul a new heart, he says he gave him another heart. Men's hearts are always changing
from one form to another. Spurgeon speaks of this another
heart as a rubber heart. A heart that bounces back to
its original shape after having been pressed on and bounces around
from one thing to another. There's no evidence in God's
Word that Saul was a prophet of God or that he was even a
believer. God gave Saul to Israel in judgment,
in judgment because they had rejected the Lord as their king. In considering that, we are reminded
that if we walk by sight, rather than by faith, if we believe
what we see and what we experience rather than believing God, they
that do mind the things of the flesh, they walk after the flesh,
they mind the things of the flesh, they're fleshly. And we are warned
in the life of Saul not to make outward judgments based on outward
appearances, that we're to believe God in spite of what we might
see and what we might feel and what we might experience. The Lord would teach us the truth
to walk by faith and not by sight, even when our outward circumstances
seem contrary to what God has said. This morning, I want us to change
our attention a bit from looking at Saul as an example of judgment
and unbelief to looking at King Saul as a type of Christ. In doing so, I hope that the
Lord will lift himself up because there's many things that are
said about Saul that are pictures of, they are typical of our Lord. And if we can see not Saul, but
Christ, then we'll leave this place with hope. The Lord's pleased
to to lift himself up in our hearts. He said, and I, if I
be lifted up, will draw all men to myself. We lift up Christ in hopes that
he will do a work of grace in our hearts, setting our affections
on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. How much of our affections and how much of our attention
and how much of our lives are consumed with fleshly matters. We come here in order to direct
our attention and get our focus, our hope on the one who reigns
sovereign over all these things that are so troublesome and difficult
for us in this world. First thing I want you to see
about the Lord Jesus Christ is that he is the first king over
Israel. He's the first king. Our Lord is called the king of
all kings. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
entered in as our surety, agreeing with his Heavenly Father to save
his people. He entered that covenant relationship
as the King of Israel. He is first in preeminence. He
is first because the Father has made him first. You hear about You hear men talk
about making Jesus Lord of your life. You can't do that. What
do you mean you can't do that? Well, God already has. Jesus Christ is Lord over your
life. I can say that with absolute
authority and with absolute confidence. He is Lord over your life. He
reigns sovereign over every circumstance of your life and my life, whether
we like it or not. He's Lord, God's given him preeminence. When the Jews tried to take him
and make him king, this happened a couple of times in our Lord's
earthly ministry. They saw his glory and they,
after one of his healings or after a miracle, and they said,
well, let's make him king. They tried to do that after the
feeding, and the scripture says that, He disappeared out of their
sight. You're not going to make me king.
I don't need your approval to be king. I am your king. God
has made me to be king. Let me show you that in the scriptures.
Turn with me to Colossians chapter one, Colossians chapter one. Verse 14, in whom, speaking of
the Lord Jesus Christ, we have redemption. Past tense, he redeemed
his people. He purchased them with his own
blood. He bought them and he made them
to be his own. Through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, all of the sins of all of God's people were put away.
once and for all by the sacrifice that Christ made of himself on
Calvary's cross, who himself is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature. He's the firstborn. He was the
first raised from the dead, the firstborn among many brethren,
the hope of our resurrection, brethren, is the surety of his. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and all things were created for
him. That's why I say, well, I can
tell you with the authority of God's word, the Lord, gee, you
were made for him. He reigns sovereign over all
things and over all kings. He's the first king of Israel,
the first king. And he is before all things and
by him, all things exist. He holds all things together
by the power of his word. And he is the head of the body,
the church who is the beginning. the firstborn from the dead that
in all things he might have the preeminence for it pleased the
father that in him should all fullness dwell and having made
peace through the blood of the cross the blood of his cross
by him to reconcile all things to himself by him I say whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven And you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through blood to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. So here we have the father giving
the Lord Jesus Christ preeminence and Though he reigns sovereign
over all men and over all circumstances, the believer rejoices in that.
The believer bows to that. The believer is thankful that he has preeminence. He said, I am the Alpha and the
Omega. The first and the last, the beginning
and the end. The Lord Jesus Christ is like
Saul being the first king of Israel. The Lord Jesus Christ
by decree and by preeminence and by the right of his redemptive
work on Calvary's cross has been made by God to be preeminent,
to be the first king over all things and over all men and God's
people Rejoice in that. God's people are glad. They're
glad they have a king who can do no wrong. A king who is able
to save them. A king who reigns sovereign over
all their circumstances. A king that can deliver them
even from death and present them faultless. Holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in the very sight of God Almighty. That's
what I need. I need a king like that. I need
a king, not only who's able to establish a righteous law, but
one who is able to fulfill that law for me. Now, our Lord said,
seek ye first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Oh, how, how we get caught up
in so many earthly things, don't we? And the Lord said, seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these
other things will be added unto you. Your heavenly father knows
what you have in need of. Christ is reigning. Christ is
king. He's sovereign. He's the first
and the last. Look to him, look to him as your
first love. Second thing I want us to see
that makes Saul typical of our king is that Saul was not chosen
by Israel, he was chosen by God. He was chosen by God. God led
Samuel and Saul's paths to meet one another. God spoke to Samuel
and said, that's the man, anoint him. And so it is with the Lord Jesus
Christ in Isaiah chapter 42, verse 1. Behold, behold my servant. Behold the one whom I uphold. Behold mine elect in whom I am
well pleased. The one in whom my heart delights. He's my chosen vessel. He's my
chosen king. God chose him. God made him king. When our Lord was hanging on
Calvary's cross, those Jews knew what the Lord had claimed to
be. And so in blasphemy they said
to him, they said he saved others. Let him save himself if he be
the king of Israel. If he be the king of Israel. Psalm 89 verse 19 says, I have
laid help upon one that is mighty and I have exalted the chosen
one as my king. God speaking, I have laid my
hand upon him, he's my anointed, he's my Christ, he's my king. Faith just agrees with God, doesn't
it? Faith rejoices and believes in what God rejoices and believes
in. So Saul was the first king of
Israel and he was the king chosen by God himself. And God says
this about his son. He said, and I behold, I lay
in Zion, a chief cornerstone elect. I elected him and he's
precious. He's without, he's priceless. He that believeth in him should
not be confounded. I have set my king upon my holy
hill. Saul was the first king of Israel. Saul, Christ is the chosen first
king over all things. Notice in 1 Samuel 10, verse
22, Therefore, they inquired of the
Lord further, if the man should yet come further. Saul had been
led to Kish's house by the Spirit of God. In the Old Testament,
oftentimes the Lord used the drawing of lots in order to reveal
his will, and so the prophet Samuel in the drawing of lots
is led by God to Kish's house. And then he's led by lots to
Saul. And yet Saul can't be found. Kish has all of his family there.
Where's Saul? God says it's supposed to be
Saul. Where is he? Therefore they inquired of the
Lord further, if the man should yet come thither. And the Lord
answered, behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff. Saul was afraid and he was hiding. Well, I looked up this word stuff
and it's often translated sword or weapon. So maybe there was
a cache of weapons somewhere in the house and Saul was hiding
behind them. But I thought, what a beautiful
picture. The sword of the spirit is the word of God. When the
Lord Jesus Christ speaks, he speaks with a flaming tongue. His word is a burning fire and
he speaks by his word. And where is the Lord Jesus Christ
hid? Not because he's afraid. but
because knowing him can only come by divine revelation. Knowing
the Lord Jesus Christ can only come by divine revelation. The
spirit of God must take the word of God and reveal the glory of
Christ through it. When our Lord met with those
disciples in the upper room and in Luke chapter 24, the scripture
says, and beginning with Moses and the Psalms and the prophets,
he expounded unto them those things concerning himself. When he was sat down to meet,
sat down to eat at the house of those disciples in Emmaus,
The scripture says that their eyes were holding so that they
could not see. They didn't know that they were
conversing with the Lord. They didn't know it was the Lord.
And the scripture says, in the breaking of bread, their eyes
were opened and they saw him. The Lord Jesus Christ has hidden
himself among the swords. He's hidden himself in his word.
Men study the Bible because they think they're going to get some
trinkets of truth that are going to help them to be more victorious
in life, and they're going to be more successful in life, and
they're looking for little principles of truth that will help them. or the pseudo-intellectuals read
the Bible and study the Bible because they think that some
historical knowledge or theological knowledge or doctrinal knowledge
will give them an advantage over other men, and knowledge puffeth
up, so let's study the Bible for that purpose. And the Lord
said to the Pharisees, he said, you search the scriptures. They were very diligent students
of the Bible because you think in them you have eternal life.
but these are they which testify of me." You've missed the whole
meaning of the Bible. You study the Bible for all the
principles that you can practice and you put them into practice
and become more successful. You know, I talk to religious
men all the time and they talk about how they got religious
and they talk about they got saved and how successful their
business has been and their lives have been now as a result of
that because they've been diligent to practice the principles of
the Bible. Bible's full of precepts and
the Bible of the Lord is clear on what we ought to do and ought
not to do. But the Bible is a revelation
of Christ. The bottom line is men don't
need to be told what to do. They need to have the power to
do it. And that only is in Christ. It's
only in Christ. And the power that's in Christ
declares all that God requires done. The power that is in Christ
declares all that God requires in his word, done, done. That's why the Bible, that's
why the gospel is called a mystery. It doesn't mean that it's mystical
or mysterious or strange. It means that it's hidden. It's
hidden. Saul was hiding among the stuff. The Lord Jesus Christ is hiding
in his word. He's hiding. He's hiding himself. And he's the only one that can
make himself known. And if you believe that, if you
believe that, if I believe that, we are saying right now, oh,
Lord, Reveal yourself to me, speak to me. You'll say with
Samuel when the Lord spoke to Samuel, speak Lord, speak Lord
for thy servant listeneth. Lord, whatever it is, I need
to know you, but I can't know you. I can't know you unless
you come out from the stuff and reveal yourself to me. Unless
you're pleased to show me how your word reveals you, I'll never
know you. I'll be distracted by everything
else in the Bible and I'll never know God. This word stuff where Saul was
hiding is also translated possessions and vessels and instruments and
jewels. Brethren, do you not find all the stuff of this life To hide Christ from your thoughts
and your view. Seems like the more stuff we
have, the more we want and the less time we have for the things
of God. Our jewels, our possessions,
our stuff. It's the way life is. Here's what our Lord said, labor
not for that meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth
unto eternal life which the Son of Man shall give unto you. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
bread of life. He's the water of life. How he often hides himself among
the stuff. Third thing I want you to see
about King Saul And we've looked at this the last couple of Sundays
in considering Saul's name. You remember what Saul's name
means? It means one to be desired. One to be desired. The scripture
says that he, well, look here, we're right here in our text,
verse 23, and they ran and fetched him. And when he stood among
the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders
upward. You know, oftentimes we exaggerate
sometimes and say, well, he's head and shoulders above, you
know, we use that as a figure of speech. God's not using it
as a figure of speech. This man stood head and shoulders
above everybody else in all of Israel. And when men looked at
him, he was one to be desired. Oh, how true that is of our Lord.
He is one to be desired, isn't he? He goes from one in whom
there is no beauty and in which we desire him not to be in the greatest desire
and longing of our hearts. Paul said, oh, that I might know
him, that I might know him. I've not yet apprehended that
which has apprehended me. But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, I press towards the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He's one to be desired in all
of our times of trouble and all of the stuff that we get so distracted
by. Might the Lord. be pleased to
put into our hearts a desire for him. The scripture says,
here's what God says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will
give you the desires of your heart. What does that mean? Does
that mean that we come to God with a desire for something fleshly
and if we'll just be religious enough and and pray enough and
delight ourselves spiritually enough that he'll give us those
desires? No. No. How backwards is that? Delight yourself in the Lord
and he will become your delight and then he will give you the
delight of your heart. And all those other things that
we think are such a delight to us will become of no consequence. Haggai chapter 2 verse 7 says
of the Lord Jesus Christ that He is the desire of the nations. He is the desire of the nations,
one to be desired. If the Lord ever shows us glimpses
of his glory, we will say with Paul, oh, I just want to know
him. I want to know him better. I
want to love him more. I want to follow him. I want
to see more of him. I want to be like him. God will set our affections on
him rather than how oftentimes they
are set on the things of this earth. One to be desired and one to be desired in glory. One to be desired in glory. The desire that God puts in his
people's hearts is to see him as he is and to be made like
him. The desire that God puts in the
hearts of his children is that in that day, there will be no
more sea. Let me show you that, turn with me
to Revelation. 21, Revelation 21. Now the scripture says that the way
of the Lord is through the seas. And from what I can understand
from the scriptures, the seas represent at least two things. They represent the turbulence
of this world. Oftentimes we find the disciples
in ships, whether it be on the Sea of Galilee or in the Mediterranean,
in the midst of a storm. And only the Lord can bring us
through those seas and safely to the other side, whatever those
storms might be. And the second thing that seas
represent in the Bible is separation, just as the seven seas in this
globe on which we live separate the seven continents of this
globe. So the seas represent this separation
that we have with God. And we know that that separation
is due to our sin, it's due to our unbelief. The scripture says
that your sin has separated you from your God. We're one with
him in Christ through faith and made righteous and perfect in
Christ but we look through a glass dimly now, don't we? We strain
to see him. We long to see more of him. He's
one to be desired and we can't partake of him as we
ought. We're satisfied with what he
did for all of our justification and righteousness before God,
but we're not satisfied with how much of him we see and how
much of him we know. We desire to know him more and
we long for that day when there will be no more see, no more
turbulence from our own sin, no more separation, And here's
the promise of God. Read with me, brethren, Revelation
chapter 21. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away and there was no more sea. No more sea. That's the longing of the believer's
heart. That's the one who's seen the
king for who he is. Well, look to go to heaven in
order to You know, the world sees heaven just simply as an
improved version of this world, you know, a life of ease, a life
of comfort, where we're gonna be reunited with loved ones and
everybody's gonna be happy and walking on golden streets. No. No. You didn't take any notice of
what the street was made out of when you drove here this morning,
did you? No. It's blacktop. It's the cheapest
material you can find on the earth. And so when the Bible
says that the streets of heaven are made of gold, what God is
saying to me and you is that things that we value so much
here are gonna be blacktop in heaven. Why? Because the glory of the King
will be our attention, not the reuniting with people as if we're
going to remember some events that we had in this world. No,
we're gonna love everyone. We'll be like Him. We're gonna
see Him as He is. He's one to be desired. We desire
to see Him and to be rid of sin and to be rid of this seed that
separates us from Him. And I, John, saw the holy city,
verse two, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I go and prepare
a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself so that
where I am there, you may be also. That's what heaven is. Heaven is Christ. There's a fullness
of his glory where there's no shadows. And I heard a great voice of
heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. The scripture says that the word
became flesh and he tabernacled among us. He lives among us now. But here we'll see the full glory
of the tabernacle of God in the radiant beauty of the one who
is to be desired, the one who is infinitely higher, head and
shoulders above all other men. And eternity will not be sufficient
to partake of his glory and to worship him. This is what heaven
is. And if you've caught a glimpse
of him by faith, If God has made him to be preeminent,
king, the chosen of God, you won't see more of him. If what
I'm talking about right now has little or no interest to you
because you're too consumed with the things of this world, oh,
I pray the Lord will open the eyes of your understanding, that
he will give you a taste of that heavenly gift. and that having
a taste of Him, you'll want more of Him. You'll want more of Him. Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be
his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God,
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, behold, I make all things new, and he said unto me, write,
For these words are true and these words are faithful. This
is God's word. And he said unto me, it is done. It is done. Everything necessary for the
preparation of heaven is done. The Lord Jesus Christ is seated
at the right hand of God until he makes all of his enemies to
be his footstool. It's done. There's nothing more
to be done. I go and prepare a place for
you. When he entered back into glory
and took his rightful place at the right hand of the majesty
on high, everything necessary for the preparation of heaven
was made secure until time shall end and he shall gather all of
his saints unto himself. This is what we live for. This
is our, he is our hope. How shameful it is for every
one of us that someone like him would be hid among our stuff. The word of God did not return
to the father void. He accomplished the purpose for
which he was sent. He saved his people and he sat
down. You know, in the old Testament,
the one piece of furniture that is conspicuously missing in the
tabernacle is a chair. There's no chair anywhere. Why? Because they were constantly
making sacrifices. They were constantly making sacrifices.
There was no throne. There was no place to sit down
and rest. Year after year and day after
day, the blood was shed until the Lord Jesus Christ came and
shed his precious blood on Calvary's cross. And now the one piece
of furniture most conspicuous in glory is the throne and our
Lord is seated on it. Why is he seated? Because he's
finished. He finished the work. Nothing
else to be done. It's finished. The seraphim. In Isaiah chapter
6, the seraphim, the chiefest of all the angelic host, the
most powerful and most glorious of all the angelic host, the
seraphim, the ones who had six wings. And the scripture says,
and with two they did cover their eyes. The glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ was so magnificent that these angelic hosts could not
look upon him. And he is the one that we will
be looking upon for all eternity. Only sinners, sinners saved by
grace are giving the eyes to see Him. The seraphims couldn't
look upon Him because they didn't know anything about grace, they
know nothing about sin, redemption. The sinners are going to look upon Him and
we're to glory in Him for all eternity. When Peter in 2 Peter speaks of the
experience that he and James and John had on the Mount of
Transfiguration, he says to us, he says, we did not bring you
fables. We didn't bring you made up stories
that we contrived in our own imagination. We handled the word
of God and we caught a glimpse of his magnificent glory when
the veil of his humanity was taken away on the Mount of Transfiguration
and his face shone like the noonday sun and we were forced to the
ground. We had to bury our eyes in the
dirt for the beauty of his glory and we heard the voice of God
speak. When God Almighty from heaven said, this is my beloved
son, in him I'm well pleased, hear ye him. And every child of God thinks
what a glorious, magnificent, mountaintop experience that must
have been. And then Peter says, yet we have
a more sure word of prophecy. Peter's saying that experience,
as glorious as it was, was somewhat subjective in that I experienced
it and I had to, you know, I had to relate to
it in my humanity. But now, we have a more sure
word of prophecy. We have the word of God. Let
me show you that, just back with me to, I think it's in second
Peter. Yes, second Peter chapter one, verse 19. We have also a more
sure word of prophecy wherein to you do well. that you take
heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your heart. This world in which
we live is a dark place. Our hearts because of sin are
a dark place. What's Peter talking about? He's
talking about the revelation that God has given us of Christ
in his word. The very place where the Lord
Jesus Christ is hid. He's hid among the stuff. He's
hid among the sword of his word. Here it is, look at the next
verse. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture
is of private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. What is the Lord saying? He's telling us to look to Christ
in the revelation that God has given us of him in his word. And that the revelation that
God has given us in his word is better than that revelation
that God gave Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. for eyes of faith to see him. Let me close with this. Saul, looking at Saul as a type
of Christ, one to be desired, the scripture says that he was
goodly. He was the most handsome man in all of Israel. He was
something to look at. and he doesn't begin to compare
to the goodliness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, why callest
thou me good? For there's none good but God.
He told Moses, I'm gonna cause my goodness to pass before you.
We want the goodness of God to pass before us, to capture our
attention and our hearts. When Saul died, he was wounded
in battle. And he did not want the enemy
to take him and torture him and kill them in their way. He wanted to die his way and in his time. He asked his sword bearer, his
shield bearer, to take the sword and kill him. And the shield
bearer said, you're the king, I can't kill you. So what did
Saul do? He fell on his own sword. He
killed himself. It's what he did. He chose the time and the method
of his own death. by falling on his own sword.
The scripture says the Lord Jesus Christ was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And then he goes on to say, I
lay down my life for the sheep. No man taketh it from me. He died in his way. And in his
time, he lived a perfect life and he died a perfect death.
And he was in absolute sovereign control over it all. Our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for the revelation that you've given us of Christ in your word. And Lord, we pray for your Holy
Spirit to burn these images in our hearts and enable us to look
in faith and long for him. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Number seven in the Sparrow Hymnal. Israel, Israel