That message really blessed my
heart, brother. Thank you. I thank our Lord for
being so faithful and giving us such a sweet, sweet sight
of our Savior. Really blessed my heart. Turn
over to 1 Samuel, chapter 31. 1 Samuel 31, this is the last
chapter in the book of 1st Samuel, it regards the death
of Saul, the death of Saul, and taking from what our brother
and pastor read last night from 1st Corinthians 3, where Paul
said, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament,
not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter killeth,
but the spirit giveth life. This is the word that they had,
the Old Testament. They were preaching the spirit
from the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament. It's
revealed, it's new in the spirit and in the face of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. And so that's my prayer, my hope
to preach to you Christ today from this word. Now, One of the
great mysteries about Saul, I guess we would call it that, is that
we have a man who began with such great promise. It says back
in 1 Samuel 10, in verse 24, Samuel said, see ye him whom
the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the
people? But it didn't take very long
at all before Saul began to sin grievously, various sins, many
sins, so that Saul must die and another, a man after God's own
heart, be put in his place as the rightful king, the anointed
king of Israel. And if you step back and you
just look at this book as a whole, which details much about Saul
and David, in Saul, we see a man who comes forth like Adam, very
much Adam-like, a man, a figure after the flesh, a man born after
the image of Adam. And then we see another. We see David. who is a picture
of the last Adam stamped in its place. There's many pictures. I mean, when you look at David,
you see a lot of sweet pictures of how the Lord deals with us,
and then we also see him as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
Saul's part is as the first king of Israel, clearly a picture
of the old man of flesh, what we are in the flesh by nature.
And David serves as that which is born of the Spirit, the second
birth, the regeneration of the Lord Jesus Christ. Saul is the
man of flesh who then, when he hears of David, he fights with
everything he has to prevent David from assuming his rightful
place as the king of Israel. But no man can resist the will
of God, thankfully. who hath resisted his will, his
glorious sovereign will. So Saul is the first king, but
it isn't long before he, like Adam, breaks God's law and commandment
to him, making a sacrifice as though he were God. He doubted. He would not wait. He didn't
wait for the hope of righteousness. He took it upon himself to work
a righteousness, to obtain the favor God, and it says in 1st
Samuel chapter 13, if you look there, verse 13, chapter 13,
verse 13, Samuel said to Saul, when he had sacrificed the animals,
he said, thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment
of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would
he would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. And we see a man under the covenant
of works coming short of that which the Lord had commanded
him. And Samuel told him in verse 14, now thy kingdom shall not
continue. 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. And then from that day, Saul
waxes worse and worse and worse in sin. But the gospel picture
which is revealed in every believer is that this old man of flesh
is just that. He's in sin, he's born in sin,
and his works are sinful. and he continually comes short
of the glory of God and all that he does. And this old man of
flesh must die. And that death must be with the
death of our Savior on the cross, that our sin be buried and put
out of sight, and we be received and accepted of God, the Father,
God, the Son, and God, the Holy Ghost. And it's there at the
cross where the sins of God's people were settled, justly,
once and for all, buried out of sight, never to be seen again,
never to be remembered again. So let's read through this chapter
together. It's not very long, it's a mere
13 verses, but we'll go through it together and we see how these
closing hours of Saul reveal to us a picture of how the Lord
our God, the Lord our Savior, saves his people, saves all God's
people. It's a picture. There's a picture
here in this. Now let me just begin in verse
4 of chapter 28. Let me just read this. 1 Samuel
28 4, we're told of a battle that was shaping up. It says
that the Philistines gathered themselves together. And everywhere
you see a picture of the Philistines in scripture, when you're reading
it, it's speaking of sin. speaking of sin, and here it's
speaking of sin and judgment for sin. They were gathering
together, and they pitched in Shunem, and Saul gathered all
Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa. Now Shunem is situated
in the tribe of Issachar, and if you've ever looked at the
names and what they mean of the children born to Jacob, This
was the fifth son born to Leah, his wife Leah. You'll know that
his name means wages and hire. This was her son that was given
to her of the Lord when her eldest son Reuben came in from the field
with mandrakes and Rachel, the other wife whom Jacob loved,
wanted some mandrakes. And she said, give me some of
those mandrakes. And Leah said, is it not enough that you have
my husband? Now you want to take my mandrakes, too? And so she
traded Jacob. He would spend his time with
Rachel. And so she gave Leah Jacob that
night. And she conceived that night
and had a son. That was her wages. And the picture
here is that the Philistines are gathering together against
Saul. This is a picture of the wages
of sin being gathered together above his head. And the day has
now come when Saul is going to drink of that cup full of the
wages of his sin. In the Philistines, as we saw
a picture of the cup, there's a cup ready to be poured out
on Saul, and he's gonna drink it. He's gonna drink that cup.
Verse one now, 1 Samuel 31, verse one. Now the Philistines fought
against Israel and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines
and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. Now this is a very sad
and it's a grim picture. It's a description of our nature
being overcome, overrun, the body being overrun and overtaken
by sin. This is Israel who bears the
name of the elect people of God. fleeing before sin, falling down,
being taken and struck down, and their lives lost here, fleeing
before the enemy. In the Mount of Gilboa, they
fell. Now, Gilboa is in the tribe of
Manasseh, and Joseph named his son Manasseh because he was forgetting,
forgetting those things, just forgetting, just like Saul had
forgotten, forgotten the hope that he once had. forgetting
those things. And Gilboa is a swollen heap,
like a bubbling fountain, a picture of pride and sin, just bubbling
and oozing out there. And these men are falling down
on a mount of pride. Saul had swelled with pride,
and now he's fleeing before the enemy, and the enemy's being
poured out upon his head. And if we put ourselves in the
place of Saul, as we look at this battle here, unfolding and
we should, we should see ourselves there. We see that, yeah, today
when we're healthy and things are going well in the green tree,
everything seems fine. And we're very confident and
cocky and proud and arrogant until that day comes when we're
called to answer for our sin. And we're brought low because
of that. And we look at Saul and If we're made honest, we
see ourselves there. We would do good. I would do
good. I've tried to do what is good and right. I've tried to
turn my life around and do things differently, promising to never
do those things again, only to come short, time and time again. And if you look at Saul, if you're
honest, I mean, when I look at him, I think I would have done
much the same thing as he did. Like he seemed to try, he seemed
to want to do what was right, but he just got it wrong every
time. He always came up short each
time. And we'll see here, as we look
at the next few verses here, it's a dismantling. What takes
place for Saul here is a dismantling of the things that man hopes
in and trusts are the things that are going to speak well
for him in the day of judgment. That these things are gonna appear
for him and help him in his hour of need. And so the first thing
we see in verse two is a picture of man's fruit, his good works,
his good fruit. And it says there in verse two,
and the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons,
the fruit of his loins, a picture of our works, our fruit, what
we do. And the Philistines slew Jonathan,
and Abinadab, and Melchishua, Saul's sons. They all perished,
even Jonathan, the well-beloved son, the faithful son. A picture of his best son, his
best fruit, his best works, what he called his righteousness.
This is the best of the best of the best of men, a dear friend
of David. but he fell, he died. And it's
a picture that whatever works we're looking to, whatever we
think is my finest hour, it must die, that David, that our David,
our spiritual David, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he takes the
throne. It ain't gonna be our Jonathan's.
It's not gonna be our best works. It's the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So these sons of Saul, they're
a picture of our righteousness. And before God, your best works
have no merit. That's not our salvation. That's
not our hope of coming and being accepted of the Lord. Not your
best works, not mine. None of those works were sinners
before the law, and Saul was a sinful lawbreaker. disobedient
to the command of God and the Word of God. You know, the Lord
told him in another place, slay the Amalekites. Every one of
them. Put them all to death. And Saul
just about did it. Just about. He did almost everything
that the Lord said. Except when Samuel got there,
he heard the bleeding of the, you know, the sound of the sheep
bleeding in the background. And then King Agag was brought
forth, the king of the Amalekites. Everyone else was slain. He did
everything. And Saul said, I only kept the best of the best so
we could sacrifice them to the Lord. And Saul said unto Samuel, when
he heard Samuel, he said back in chapter 15, verse 24, I have
sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and
thy words. And Samuel went to turn and Saul
grabbed his arm. Please don't go. and his sleeve
ripped, and Samuel said unto him, the Lord hath rent the kingdom
of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor
of thine that is better than thou. And again, when I look
at Saul, I have to admit, I'm no different than that guy. I
mean, he tried, I've tried, you've tried, we've tried to do what
is right, we've tried to make ourselves acceptable to the Lord,
and I just keep coming up short every time. I had so many good
things, have my Jonathans, but they mean nothing. They all fall
down slain and dead. So we see a picture of ourselves
in that old man of flesh in Saul. And before the law, Paul wrote
this in Romans 7 verse 5, for when we were in the flesh, the
motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. And Saul's fruit is now dead. Jonathan Abinadab Melchizedek,
laying dead on the Mount of Gilboa. Next, we see, just as a fruit
won't stand for us now, we see what hits next. It's verse three,
and the battle went sore against Saul and the archers hit him. and he was sore wounded of the
archers. You ever have those nights when your sin is brought
back to your memory and the arrows fly? All his best works are dead,
and now in come the arrows, the fiery arrows, and they're striking,
they're hitting their marks. Failure, unfaithful, wicked man,
you've forgotten, your works don't speak well for you at all,
What a miserable, vile, wretched, commandment-breaking, sinful
man. It's what we are, and they strike,
and they hit, and they hit their marks perfect. The Lord knows exactly what we
are, and he knows exactly where to touch us, where to allow those
flying arrows to hit their mark. Next, Saul was made like unto
a man who, in his dying moments, He starts looking for a word
of comfort. He's looking for something. The
terrors are coming upon him. He sees what he is, he knows
that death is near, and now he's turning and looking for some
word of comfort, something to deliver him from his fears, to
give him some rest, some peace from that which he now fears.
And it says in verse four, then said Saul unto his armor bearer,
his trusty, faithful armor bearer, draw thy sword and thrust me
through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust
me through and abuse me. make sport of me, mock me, put
me down and show me what I am, how weak and frail I am. Put
me out of my misery before they get here. But his armor bearer
would not, for he was sore afraid. Therefore, Saul took a sword
and fell upon him. Saul's a man that's tortured
by the thought of his coming judgments. It's mounted up. and
it's coming down upon him and he's tortured by these things
and he's seeking a sword. And a sword in the scripture
is a picture of the word. The word, he's looking for a
word. Our Lord Jesus Christ said in Revelation 2.16, repent or
else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with
the sword of my mouth. Right, his word, his word will
judge. His word will expose us. His
word strips us down and shows us for what we are. But no carnal
man can speak peace to your heart. How many times have you turned
to a dear friend, a dear brother when you were troubled, and everything
they said was true and right, but it still gave you no peace?
Because only the true and living God can speak peace into a man's
heart, that he hear it and receive it and is settled by it. Don't delay to get to Christ. Cry out to him for mercy today
before the day of your mocking fears come upon you. Seek to
hear that word now. Beg him to make that word effectual
to your heart, to open your ear, to open your heart, to receive
that word. Today is the day of grace. Today
is the day that we're to hear his word, to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look to him, he's the savior.
Let us labor therefore, Hebrews 4, 11 and 12 says, let us labor
to enter into that rest, not labor under the law, labor to
be found in Christ. Lord, save me, have mercy on
me, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For
the word of God is quick, living, and powerful and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Saul is desperate
for a word of comfort, and his armor bearer has nothing, nothing
to say to him. So he just hides it, saying anything
he can say, falls upon his own sword to try and give him some
comfort, something to put himself out of his misery. Now considering
all this, as we look at Saul here, we see an awful testimony
of the end of the natural man. This is what each of us are by
nature if left to ourselves. This is not a pretty sight at
all. He's forsaken God and now he's
dead on the Mount of Gilboa. It says in verse five and six
now, 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. It's a sobering, awful end that
speaks to our end. If we hear not the Lord Jesus
Christ, if we continue in our own works, in our own ways, trying
to do our own things, pursuing the lusts of this flesh and this
world, this is the miserable end of all those without Christ. Now, as Samuel asked back in
chapter 15, verse 17, you think of this awful end for this man
who had such a remarkable beginning, and Samuel asked him saying,
when thou wast little in thine own sight. Wast thou not made
the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king
over Israel? Do you remember, brethren, when
you were little in your own sight, and you delighted yourself in
the Lord, and to hear the Lord delighted your heart, and blessed
you, and comforted you, and you found joy and peace in him, when
you were little in your own sight. And now Saul's on Mount Gilboa,
a picture of the pride and arrogance of man, a man who's forgotten,
a man who's wrapped himself in the weeds of this world and forgotten. Don't forget. Remember when you
were little. Remember when you were little
and nothing but a sinner, desperate in need for the grace of God.
Remember that day. Get to Christ. Look to Christ,
beg him for mercy. If your heart is hard and cold,
beg him to soften your heart and to warm your heart with Christ.
He is able, he is able, and he shuts us up in hard, dark places
that we would see our misery to draw us to himself and sweetly,
blessedly, preciously in him. Now, with Saul's fall, the land
we see in pictures is overrun by the enemy. This comes in like
a flood. And it says in verse 7 down through
10, and when the men of Israel that were on the other side of
the valley and they that were on the other side, 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 did put his armor in
the house of Ashtoreth, and they fastened his body. They took
his body and just nailed it up on the wall in Bethshan. Now Bethshan means house of rest. It's a picture of his lasting
habitation stuck on that wall. A man dead in trespasses and
sins and he cannot get himself unfastened, unnailed from that
wall. What a shameful, miserable, horrible
death. and fastened to the wall in Beth-shan. And this is what we are like
in Adam, in Saul, just like them, in sin, in misery, in pride,
in arrogance, forgetting when we were little, when we heard
that word and tasted it and it was good. And we rejoiced in
the Lord and forgot, forgot, and just went off into the world
of sin and death And now he's nailed up in the strongman's
house and can't get himself out. He's shut up in a dark prison
and can't free himself. He has no light, nothing to save
himself with. He's nailed there to a wall in
captivity. And if that were the end, we'd
have no hope of standing before holy God, beautiful God and savior,
wondrous, fairer than 10,000. So in summary here, before we
move on, we see a picture of all men by nature, fallen before
our enemies, overrun by them. Any good fruit that we think
that we have, even the best, like Jonathan, all fallen and
slain. When the hours come in, they
hit their mark and expose us and show us what we are by nature,
reminding us of our vile sinfulness. The lust of my flesh, my wicked
thoughts, my evil heart, and then that no word can be found
to deliver us from our misery. And so our miserable frames are
just carried off to the house of the strong man. That's the
picture. We're shut up in prison, in darkness, nailed to the wall,
and cannot free ourselves. We're dead, dead in trespasses
and sins there. And our Lord said something of
this in Luke 11, 21, When a strong man armed keepeth his palace,
his goods are in peace. And there it is in that house
of rest, nailed to the wall. And again, if that's how it ended,
then the Lord would be just to leave us there. Because we've
done no good. But that's not the end. The Lord
has something here in this chapter for us. The hope of the believer,
whose hope is fixed in Christ, the promised Savior. is the one
who delivers us, who destroys the works of the devil, and that's
what this picture's here. These Philistines and what they
did to Saul, it pictures the works of the devil. And it says
in 1 John 3, 8, he that commiteth sin is of the devil. We've got
a problem, because we commit sin. That's us by nature. For the devil sinneth from the
beginning, but for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested,
that he might destroy the works of the devil. He destroys them. We can't, but he destroys them. So I tell you this good news
that what the Philistines did in fastening Saul's body to the
wall in Bethshem did not last. It did not remain. Their works
were destroyed. Let's read this in verse 11 through
13. 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 Bethshem 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 there
is much here. In the spirit of the word, there
is much here that speaks to the gospel of our Lord and Savior
and what he does to save a sinner. Again, when I look at Saul, I
can't boast of being any better. In fact, he's probably better
than me. He's so close, but so far, I missed it. And we see
what all men earn. The wages of sin is death nailed
to that wall in Beth-shan. But here we see a picture. Picture
of the valiant man who, as you preached, went forth boldly,
knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth. Christ is the captain of our
salvation. He's the valiant man. He's the
valiant savior of his people. And he went into that strong
man's house and said, give me that one. He's mine. Take her. She's mine. Him there, that's
mine. Bring them down. They're my spoils,
the spoils of my victory. They cannot remain here. They
must come out. They must come with me. And there's
a beautiful picture in Hebrews 2.10 that says, for both he that
sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause
he's not ashamed to call me a brother? And you that hope in him, though
your sins be many, and though you are a vile sinner, you that
have a hope in Christ, that faith which God manifests in his children,
look unto Christ. Christ is not ashamed of you,
to call you brother, to call you sister. And that amazes me. knowing what I am in myself,
worthy of that wall, Shushan and Bethshan, that he would not
be ashamed of me, but come and save me and deliver me out of
that awful house, that awful eternal habitation of death and
foul stench and misery there. Our Savior left the Father's
bosom. He went out from the veil of
heaven. and that glory and peace and joy that he shared with the
Father, to take upon him this flesh, the likeness of this flesh,
yet was without sin, and went into the darkness of night, into
that foul, smelly, stinking house where we are, to deliver us,
to take us out, to remove us from the strong man's house. And it says in Colossians 2,
verses 13 through 15, And you, being dead in your sins and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened, made alive,
together with him having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. All that stands opposed to us
in fellowship with God and in peace with him, in reconciliation,
Christ put it all away, nailing it to his cross, that we would
be taken off that wall and go with him, be taken with him,
brethren. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he destroyed their works, he made a show, a spectacle
of them openly, triumphing over them in it. And that's what the
picture that we see here, what these valiant men did, they triumph
gloriously. And that's what our Savior did
for every one of you who now call upon him, who look to him
and give him thanks for his mercy, grace, and salvation. It's his
work in you. It's his accomplished redemption
wrought in you by his grace and sovereign power. And in this
work upon the cross, he went into that strong man's house
and spoiled those of his choosing. He took them out. It says in
the fullness of that in Luke 11, 21, 22 says, when a strong
man armed keepeth this palace, his goods are in peace. But when
a stronger than he shall come, shall come upon them and overcome
him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted and
divided his spoils. And brethren, that's a picture.
We're the spoils and it's a picture of our inheritance in Christ
that he shares with us in him. We're made partakers of our Lord's
inheritance. And he earned it all. He earned
it all by his grace and power. And so here pictured in the taking
of the body of Saul and the body of his sons from the wall of
Beth Shem, we see grace, a picture of grace delivering Sinners from
that prison from that darkness which we could not free ourselves
and he says sinners Show yourselves come into the light Where you
testify know that God hath done this God hath done this in me. He saved me. He delivered me
It's by his mercy and salvation and they returned to Jabesh The
flesh of their bodies was burned with fire there in Jabesh and
even so did we die with our Savior, with the body of our Savior on
that tree where he bore the fiery wrath of God in our place. To
put to death this body of sin, as Paul said in Romans 6, 6,
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin. He did that work for us, brethren.
By Christ's sacrifice, the judgment of God is dried up against us. And that's what Jabesh means.
Dried up. Dried up. That wrath which was
our due is dried up against you that are in the Lord Jesus Christ
by his grace and power. There's no more wrath that remains
for you. Just as there's no more work
for you to do to justify yourselves, to sanctify yourselves, to save
yourselves, Christ did it all. All. and he brings forth precious
fruit of his seed, brought in you of his power, of his grace. We walk by faith in him, and
he bears in us hope, love, and faith that looks to him and rejoices
in him only. And they took their bones, it
says, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days. That tree at Jabesh speaks to
the cross of our dear Savior, under which our sins are buried
out of sight. All that we were, that filth,
that stench, that vileness there on the wall in Bethshean is buried
out of sight and is seen no more. It's put away in Christ. And we read in Colossians 3.3,
for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. in God, and that's the gospel
that's declared there in that otherwise miserable chapter,
and an end to Saul's life there. It's a picture of how the Lord
saves his people graciously doing for us what we do not deserve. We see what we earned, but we
see the grace and power of our God in faithfulness and mercy
and grace to save us. Now, just understand this is
not a message meant to help you know whether or not Saul is a
child of God. That's not even in view at all.
To his own master he standeth or falleth. It's not about whether
or not he's saved or not. It's a picture given for our
comfort to see how our God can be just to save a wretched, vile
sinner who's no better than that man. I hope your boast isn't
that you're better than Saul, because we're not. We're not
better than Saul. We need Christ. Every bit that
He gives us is what we need for salvation. It's all in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're all most miserable in ourselves,
but the Lord Jesus Christ is precious. His blood is precious. The Father loves Him. His blood
is sweet, is precious. His sacrifice is precious to
Him, and all who come to Him smell of His dear scent and are
received of the Father. Come to the Father through Jesus
Christ, the Son. He's merciful and gracious. I
pray he bless your hearts and bless you to come to him. Amen.