1st Samuel chapter 31. This is
the final chapter in our study in 1st Samuel. I suppose we'll
just continue on into 2nd Samuel, if the Lord is willing. But this
last, just a brief chapter, and interesting that you'll probably
think like I did as I read this, what in the world are we going
to see in this chapter? But the Lord always is gracious
to teach us. Look at chapter 31 verse 1. Now
the Philistines fought against Israel. We know that they were
going to, and David was called back. He was sent back because
they didn't trust him. But the Philistines went on to
attack Israel. And the men of Israel fled from
before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. And
the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons.
And the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Malkishua, Saul's
sons. And the battle went sore against
Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was sore wounded of the
archers. Then said Saul unto his armor-bearer, draw thy sword
and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come
and thrust me through and abuse me. But his armor-bearer would
not, for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and
fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw
that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and died with
him. So Saul died and his three sons
and his armor-bearer and all his men that same day together. And when the men of Israel that
were on the other side of the valley and they that were on
the other side at Jordan saw that the men of Israel fled and
that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled.
And the Philistines came and dwelt in them. And it came to
pass on the morrow when the Philistines came to strip the slain that
they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa.
And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent
into the land of the Philistines round about to publish it in
the house of their idols and among the people. And they put
his armor in the house of Ashtoreth and they fastened his body to
the wall in Bethshan. And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead
heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant
men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and
the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan. and came to
Jabesh and burnt them there and they took their bones and buried
them under a tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days. Now you'll
remember that Saul was told apparently the day before this that he was
gonna die. Look at 1 Samuel 28. Just a few
verses, 15 through 19. 1 Samuel 28. We want to see this because we
see the end of the life of Saul. And we're going to see why. Lord
willing, we're going to see why. Look at verse 15. And Samuel
said to Saul, why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? You remember
Saul went to that witch and had her conjure up Samuel from the
dead, which we know only the Lord can do that. He has the
keys of hell and of death. But he used this witch to to
say something to Saul. And Saul answered, I'm sore distressed
for the Philistines make war against me. And God is departed
from me and answereth me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams.
Therefore, I have called thee that thou mayest make known unto
me what I shall do. If God's not going to talk to
you, what's a word from a man going to do for you? Boy, what
a lesson to value a word from God. Don't take for granted if
God speaks to you. Then said Samuel, wherefore then
dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee? That's
what he's saying. If God be against you, who can
be for you? The Lord has become thine enemy. What a horrible place. to be
and the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me for the Lord
hath rent the kingdom out of thy hand and given it to thy
neighbor even to David notice here this is key because thou
obeyest not the voice of the Lord nor executes his fear wrath
upon Amalek therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee
this day moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee
into the hand of the Philistines and tomorrow Shalt thou and thy
sons be with me. The Lord also shall deliver the
host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. So notice
in the language there, because this is the occasion of Saul's
death in chapter 31 here. So we want to understand some
things about Saul. Notice that Saul had become the
enemy of God and God his enemy. by not doing what God told him
to do and by not hearkening to the voice of the Lord. Now there
is no voice from the Lord. There is no word from God now
for Saul. And this is the issue with the
gospel now. That right there, the reason
that God became the enemy of Saul is pertinent to us tonight. This is the issue with the gospel,
to hearken unto the voice of the Lord and do what he says. Do what he says. The gospel of
Christ, like all of the word of God to Saul, it was counter
to his reasoning. God said, go kill all of the
Amalekites, everybody. And Saul thought, well, that
just doesn't make any sense. We've got all these good animals
here. We can sacrifice some to the Lord. I can be religious.
And we can have all this wealth. Why waste that in making sense?
The gospel is counter to your thinking too, unless God's opened
your eyes. But it's a word from God. So
what is our thinking compared to that? It's God speaking, and
when God speaks, we're to bow. Our brother prayed, Lord, cause
us to bow. That's a good prayer. and were
to obey him in the garden, man did not do what God said and
plunged the entire race into spiritual death and darkness,
banishment from God. The Israelites, to whom the law
was given, did not according to that law. They broke the old
covenant, the covenant of works. And so that covenant is called
by Paul in 2 Corinthians 3, 7, the ministration of death. There's
no life in that covenant. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in the sight of God. We've already blown
it. And every day we blow it further. The more we do, the
more we sin. Now the gospel, likewise, is
a command. It's not a suggestion. It's not
an invitation. It's a command. God says, believe
on my Son. This is my beloved Son. Hear
Him. I don't see any choices there, do you? Hear Him. Bow to my Son. But a clear distinction
now is made between the Law and the Gospel in all of the Word
of God. In Romans chapter four, we're told that the promises
of God could not be received by the Israelites. I tried to
pick out a passage in Romans four there that I could read.
You really have to read the whole chapter and we won't take time
to do that tonight. But Paul says there, the promises
of God could not be received by the Israelites by the works
of the law because we could never measure up to God's law. The
promises are not based upon us keeping his law. Thank God. But the promises are received
by faith. By faith, Abraham, he believed
God and it was counted to him, it was imputed to him for righteousness.
And Paul makes a very important statement in verse 16 of that
chapter, Romans 4. Look, let's turn to this part.
I think this will be helpful. Romans 4.14, let's look at that
together. Romans 4.14. It's setting faith and law as
opposition, in opposition to one another. You're either saved
by the law or you're saved by faith. And notice the language,
for if they, verse 14, which are of the law be heirs, faith
is made void. And the promise made of none
effect, because the law worketh wrath. In other words, if we're
standing before God on a footing of law, if His covenant promises,
which are yea and amen in Christ, if they're yea and amen based
on my obedience, wrath. The result is wrath for everybody. Because the law worketh wrath,
for where no law is, there's no transgression, but where there
is law, there's transgression. Paul said in Romans, in the previous
chapter, Romans three, that God gave the law, that every mouth
may be stopped and all the world become guilty before him. The law worketh wrath, there's
no transgression without law, but where there's the law, there's
sin. It reveals sin. Therefore it
is a faith salvation the promises are Firm and sure by faith that
it might be by grace to the end that the promise life blessing
What our Lord prayed for in the garden for us communion love
unity fellowship with him forever in glory and to be one with Him, that promise
might be sure to all the seed. If it's law, wrath is sure to
everybody, the seed and not the seed. It doesn't matter who you
are. But the promise is sure to the seed, those who are Christ's. Not to that only which is of
the law, not just to the Jews, but to that also which is of
the faith of Abraham. Everybody, Jew, Gentile, male,
bond-free, barbarian, Scythian. In Christ, there is none of that. There's no distinction that matters. The faith of Abraham, who is
the father of us all, the father of the faithful, because his
faith is is what we look to to see how God saves sinners. God
still saves sinners just like he saved Abraham by grace through
faith. It is a faith that it might be
by grace. There's a big difference now
between God commanding thou shalt and thou shalt not and the obedience
of that being dependent upon the character of man, the obedience
of man, and God commanding, believe on my son, bow to my son, love
my son, trust my son, and giving faith in Christ to obey that
command. It's a big difference. The difference,
of course, here, as Paul points out, is faith. Faith. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God, not by the law, by the gospel. The difference is life and death.
It is of faith that it might be by grace. In other words,
in both cases there's command and there's obedience demanded.
But the difference is when the grace of God comes and gives
faith to a sinner, and faith just has one object, it's Christ. The gospel command is obeyed,
and it's not a work of man, it's a gift of God's grace. That's
what he said. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's a work of God's grace. It's
not a trusting in works, it's a trusting in Christ. So there's
still a command. The gospel is a command. And
there's still obedience, the obedience of faith it's called.
We'll look at that. But it's not like the required
obedience of the law, in that God gives faith to obey his gospel. If he don't, then it'll be just
like with the law. We'll fail. If it's incumbent
upon us, if it really is, as religion loves to say, up to
you, it's just another law then, isn't it? But no. It is by faith
that it might be by grace. It is of God-given faith that
it might be by grace. So what does all this have to
do with our text? God was Saul's enemy because of a refusal to
hear and a refusal to obey. And in the preaching of the gospel
there must be a hearing. How are they going to believe
on him of whom they've not heard? And how are they going to hear
without the gospel? And there must be obedience, there must
be a bowing, there must be submission. But not the same at all as the
obedience of the law. When the gospel is preached,
God gives some men ears to hear and faith to obey. And because
it's by faith, it's by grace. And He did that for some in Saul's
day. He was saving people then just like He's saving them now.
By faith in His Son. by grace through faith in his
son. And he's doing that now. He's giving that faith to some
still today. And the obedience of faith is
not obedience to the law. In order to obtain the righteousness
which is of the law, the obedience of faith is submission to Christ.
What's the gospel command? Thou shalt and thou shalt not
know. It's come to Christ. Bow to Christ. He that whosoever
believeth on me shall not perish, but have everlasting life. It's
submission to Christ, not to obtain the righteousness which
is of the law, but to obtain the righteousness of God in him.
They have not submitted. They have a form of godliness,
but they have not submitted to the righteousness of God, for
Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. There's faith again, believeth.
After Paul had written the epistle to the Romans, which has for
its theme, the whole book of Romans has for its theme, salvation
by grace through faith and without the works of the law through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Paul ended the book of
Romans this way, listen to it. Now to him that is of power to
establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus
Christ. according to the revelation of
the mystery you see that's key now this is how God saves sinners
by the preaching of Christ and revealing that mystery to those
he chose in love from eternity which was kept secret since the
world began but now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the
prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known
to all nations for the obedience of faith To God only wise be glory through
Jesus Christ forever. Amen. So God establish you according
to my gospel in the preaching of Jesus Christ and reveal that
gospel to you. Reveal him to you through that
gospel which he made known for the obedience of faith. He preaches it through a man. He reveals it. He gives you faith. And you'll bow. You'll obey. You'll come. Now think of our
text for a little while from David's point of view. This is
Saul. Now Saul, his whole life was
a disaster because there's no grace, no faith. He was left
to himself to obey God and he did what everybody does when
left to themselves. He leaned to his own understanding
thumbed his nose at God. Exactly what we would have done
if he hadn't given us faith in his son. But now think from David. David had reason in his heart
in chapter 27, you remember, and it got him into trouble.
He communed with his own heart and he said, Saul's going to
kill me someday. I've got to come up with a plan.
And of course, downhill from there, From that point on, chapter
27 up until chapter 30, which we saw last time, David was spiraling
ever downward. And God brought him all the way
down, didn't he? To where he had nowhere to look but up. And
so he got in terrible trouble, but God not only delivered David
from the trouble that was brought on by David's fleshly reasoning,
his ignoring of the promises of God, But God also eliminated,
according to his promise, by the way, also, the problem that
David foolishly tried to reason his way out of to begin with.
You see that? Saul was the problem all along.
Problem solved. David wasn't even there when
God solved it. That's how he'll solve your problems,
too, without your help. Every one of them. So quit trying
to help. We want to do what God gives
us that we know to do. Of course. But we're in His hand
now. And He brings about these trials
and gets us out of them to show us that. Have we seen it yet?
Have we had enough to see it? So think about this. David has
just come through this nightmare. narrowly being safe from killing
his own people. He's king of these people and
he was going to kill them. And God providentially prevented
that. But then he goes back and all
of the families of all of his men and his own family and everything
they had stolen by the Amalekites and their family being treated
no telling how, probably killed as far as they know, or worse. And David is shown what happens
when we try to live by the will and the way of the flesh. And
then on the other side of all of it, God kills Saul and says,
in effect, I told you. I told you what was going to
happen. He told David from the start, what were you worried
about? What were you reasoning with your own heart about? And David wrote in the psalm,
why, my soul, why are you disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. Why didn't he just do that from
the start? God eliminates the source of all of David's problems
and says, I told you. God had already delivered Saul
into his hand twice. to show him. And would it have
been right for David to kill him? No, but God is showing him
this is an epic struggle between you and Saul. This is me working
everything in your life and our business is to bow, obey, trust,
love, thank. So David's whole life so far
has been one big illustration Think about it this way, his
whole life is one big illustration, maybe yours is too. Does this
have anything to do with your life here? We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called,
them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? When we look back at everything that God has done,
everything that He's promised, if God be for us, who can be against us? That would have been a good thing
to remember in chapter 27 for David, wouldn't it? It'd be a good thing for us to
remember right now. Right now. Right now. And Saul is the flip side of
that, if God be against you. Isn't that what Samuel said to
him? God is your enemy, what are you
doing talking to me? What good is that going to do? And we have an interesting reminder
of something in this chapter too. Notice that the people of
Jabesh Gilead were angry about how Saul was treated. When they
heard that they had cut off his head and nailed him to the wall
and treated him, you know, just a... The people of Jabesh Gilead heard
of it. And they went and got him. killed some of the Philistines
and got his body back. The reason they were angry about
that, they loved Saul. And you'll remember in 1 Samuel
11, 1-11. Let's read it real quick. 1 Samuel 11, because this is
just an interesting lesson here. God had used Saul,
a couple of times it says in the narrative of Saul's life,
it says that the spirit of the Lord came upon him. And we saw
how that wasn't, God had already told him, you know, I've rejected
you. So it wasn't salvation, it wasn't
the Holy Spirit given in salvation and regeneration and faith and
all the fruit of the Spirit. None of that was present in Saul.
But doesn't the Holy Spirit come upon God's enemies too and manipulate
them to do whatever God wants them to do? You better believe
it. And so let's read it here, verse
one, chapter 11. Then Nahash the Ammonite came
up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead. That's the city in our
text that when they heard about Saul, they went and did something
about it. And all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, make
a covenant with us and we will serve thee. And Nahash the Ammonite
answered them, on this condition will I make a covenant with you
that I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for reproach
upon all Israel. And the elders of Jabesh said
unto him, give us seven days' respite, that we may send messengers
unto all the coasts of Israel. And then if there be no man to
save us, we will come out to thee. Then came the messengers
to Gibeah of Saul and told the tidings in the ears of the people.
And all the people lifted up their voices and wept." Of course,
the Ammonites are just insulting them. We'll let you surrender
to us if we can put all your eyes out. That's just an insult. And behold, verse 5, Saul came
after the herd out of the field. And Saul said, what aileth the
people that they weep? And they told him the tidings
of the men of Jabesh. And remember now that everything
that Saul, we can't even remember all the things that he, the stupid
things that he came up with and the disastrous decisions that
he made. But notice this. They told him
the tidings of the men of Jabesh. And the Spirit of God came upon
Saul. And all of a sudden, he does something right. Isn't that
interesting? When he heard those tidings and
his anger was greatly kindled greatly. He wasn't the coward
that he had been before. And he took a yoke of oxen and
hewed them in pieces and sent them throughout all the coasts
of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, whosoever cometh not
forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his
oxen. And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they
came out with one consent. And when he numbered them in
Bezek, the children of Israel were 300,000 and the men of Judah
30,000. And they said unto the messengers
that came, thus shall you say unto the men of Jabesh-gilead,
tomorrow by that time the sun be hot, you shall have hell.
And the messengers came and showed it to the men of Jabesh, and
they were glad. Therefore the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow
we will come out unto you, and you shall do with us all that
seemeth good unto you. And it was so on the morrow that
Saul put the people in three companies, and they came into
the midst of the host in the morning, went watch, and slew
the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And it came to pass
that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them
were not left together. So Saul wreaked havoc on the
Ammonites. He defended the people of Jabesh
Gilead. And that's why here in our text,
The people of Jabesh Gilead were mad when they heard what happened
to Saul. So God used Saul to protect his people when it was
in God's purpose to do so, to do something good there in that
passage. Even though his character was
evident even in that, you notice that the people of Israel didn't
fight for him voluntarily. He had to threaten his own people
to get him to fight. Saul's character is revealed
even in that, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and
made him mad, made it to where he would not let that stand.
And so God used Saul even a reprobate. We don't use the word reprobate
lightly, but when God says I've departed from you, you're my
enemy now, you can use the R word. You're a goner. But God even uses reprobates,
devils. to accomplish his will. And here's
the lesson. Man's will and man's choice is
always wrong. And the outward appearance has
nothing to do with it. Saul was an impressive man to
the people. Let me read you 1 Samuel 9-2.
It's talking about Saul's father had a son whose name was Saul,
a choice young man and a goodly. And there was not among the children
of Israel a goodlier person than he. From his shoulders and upward,
he was higher than any of the people. He was that much taller
than everybody else in the land of Israel. So he was a very impressive
man. And when Saul defended the people
of Jabesh Gilead, where we just read there in chapter 11, They
said unto Samuel, who is he that said shall Saul reign over us?
The people of Jabesh Gilead are saying, who is it that questioned
whether Saul was our king or not? Bring them in that we may
put them to death. In other words, they were impressed with Saul
had saved them. God had saved them. They used
Saul to do it. And so the people of Jabesh Gilead,
you see the affiliation there in our text. And they said, will
anybody question that Saul is our king? Let's kill him. And
Saul said, there shall not a man be put to death this day. This
is Saul talking. For today the Lord hath wrought
salvation in Israel. Sounded pretty good, didn't it? Doesn't change the fact that
God was his enemy. Saul might well have fooled a
lot of people, but you can't fool God. Remember Matthew 7.22,
and then he was saying to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. But God
was their enemy. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. And we need to mention also at
the death of Saul that in the detail of the declaration God's
wrath upon Saul was this statement and let's remember this and emphasize
this 1st Samuel 28 18 Because thou obeyest not the
voice of the Lord Nor executed his fierce wrath upon Amalek
Therefore the Lord hath done this thing unto thee this day
in other words. You're a goner you're gonna die
tomorrow and And God is your enemy. So physical
death is the least of it. And Saul knew that. He was miserable. He couldn't eat. They had to
force him to eat. But listen to the detail. So
far we've identified and rightly so the two problems. You didn't
listen to God and you didn't do what God said. But notice
the detail of him not doing what God said. You didn't execute
God's fierce wrath upon Amalek. God had said attack the Amalekites
and kill everybody and everything. And God spared the king of Amalek. Or Saul did. Disobeyed God and
refused to slay all of the Amalekites. And the Amalekites are a picture,
remember, uniquely of the flesh. It was the Amalekites again that
first attacked the nation of Israel when they left Egypt,
when they were delivered by the blood of the Passover lamb. And
so the flesh, that war between flesh and spirit begins as soon
as there's salvation, as soon as there's deliverance from bondage.
They were ambushed by the Amalekites. So the Amalekites clearly are
the flesh. And when you think of the flesh,
always think of the will of man, the way of man, the works of
man. That's the flesh. Belief on Christ
is a renouncing of the flesh. Remember Paul's words in Philippians
3. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, he said, if any other man thinketh that he hath
whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. In other words,
if anybody trusts in your flesh, I've got more reason to trust
in the flesh than anybody does because I was circumcised the
eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, in
Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, the most
highly respected among the Jews, concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless,
nobody could accuse me of anything, outward disobedience to the law,
but what things were gained to me. I had all these reasons to
trust in my flesh, Paul said, but what I thought were check
marks and gold ribbons were demerits. What things were gained to me
in my estimation, those I counted loss for Christ.
You doubtless, and I count all things but loss. for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord." Have you ever heard
a testimony like that? Religion loves to have testimonial
services. I think it's a waste of time.
If that's not your testimony right there, that one's better
than yours, and we ought to just say, that's mine too. You want
to hear my testimony? Boy, I hope this is it. I hope
this is it. I count all things but loss.
For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but dumb, that I may win Christ. May Paul's definition of the
believer in Philippians 3.3 be ours, be a definition of us.
Listen to it. For we are the circumcision,
in other words, and Paul dealt with this in his epistles. It's
not the circumcision made with hands. It's circumcision of the
heart. It's spiritual. The circumcision was the sign
of the covenant. It's what identified the people
of Israel as the covenant people of Israel. And he's saying here,
we are the circumcision, spiritually speaking. We're the elect of
God. We're God's covenant people, his elect, his sheep, his church. which worship God in the spirit." The Lord said to that woman at
the well, you say people worship it in mountains and in valleys
and everything. He said, they that worship God
must worship Him in spirit. Not in the mountain or in Jerusalem
or anywhere. It doesn't matter where. He's
got his spirit and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth. Paul said, that's us. God's elect,
God's covenant people, spiritual Israel, which worship God in
the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. We have one joy, one hope,
one object of our faith, one message. one bond as his people. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. And
fourthly, you know what the last one is, don't you? We have no
confidence in the flesh. If our study in Samuel has not
taught us that, to rejoice in Christ alone to the exclusion
of any confidence that we might ever have in this wretched flesh.
May we renounce with all of our hearts, ourselves and everything that
we are and everything that we've ever done or ever will do, that
we may win Christ and be found in Him. Our Lord said in John
6.63, it is the spirit that quickeneth. Now listen to me very carefully. Listen to this word very carefully.
It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. What does he mean by spirit? And what was Saul's problem by
the way? Listen to what he says. Let me read it again. It is the
spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. The words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit. and they are life. What was Saul's
problem? He would not hearken unto the
words of the Lord. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
the flesh profiteth absolutely. You can walk aisles until you
fall down exhausted. It's not going to help you get
any closer to God. You can make all the decisions
you want to make. It's not going to get you any
closer to God. The flesh profiteth nothing. The spirit gives life. And the
way he does it is through the word. The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. That's why when
Mary sat at the feet of the Lord and heard his word, he said she's
chosen that good part. And here's why she did it. Because
one thing is needful. That good part is what you're
doing right now. Hearing the word of the Lord. And it is that good part because
the one thing needful is Christ. And the word of the Lord is Christ
from start to finish. He is the Alpha and Omega, is
he not? And so may our Lord be gracious. Give us faith in his son. And
may he increase our faith if we have it. So that we can say
with Paul, I count it all but done. that I may win Christ and
be found in Him. Let's pray together.