All right, brethren, 1 Samuel
chapter 31. This is the end of King Saul's
earthly life. God said to Israel and Hosea,
He said, I gave thee a king in mine anger and took him away
in my wrath. Here we have God taking away
Saul and his wrath. Now you remember this, Saul was
the people's choice. Saul was the people's choice.
God described Saul to the children of Israel. He told them, when
you have chosen him, when I've given him, he said he will be
your king which you shall have chosen. Now by nature, The king
that we all choose is self, by nature. That's who Saul is a
good picture of here. The choice of every man by nature
is to make himself a king. Now we only have one king, that's
Christ. But men in some regard want Christ's
glory. And natural man wants it in every
regard. Through God's prophet Samuel,
God warned them not to choose Saul. He warned them not to choose
Saul. Now every time God's prophet
stands to preach, That's what is being declared. Do not choose
yourself. Do not trust yourself. Do not
look to your works. Do not look to your hand. Look
to Christ alone. That's what Samuel came and told. Do not choose Saul. And that's what we preach. It
says in 1 Samuel 8, 19, nevertheless the people refused to obey the
voice of Samuel. And they said, no, but we will
have a king over us. The Lord Jesus gave a parable.
He is the certain nobleman and he said, a certain nobleman went
into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to
return. And he called his 10 servants
and he delivered them 10 pounds and said unto them, occupy till
I come. But his citizens hated him. and sent a message after him
saying, we will not have this man reign over us. That's the
carnal heart in every man. We will not have Christ reign
over us. We will not have him reign over
us. We won't submit to his gospel.
We won't submit to his way of saving through the preaching
of the gospel. We will not submit to him for righteousness, for
everything we need. We won't have him reign over
us. And the Lord said to Samuel, when they rejected Samuel's word
and they wanted Saul, he said, Hark unto the voice of the people
in all that they say unto thee. For they have not rejected thee,
but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. You see, by rejecting Samuel,
they rejected the Lord, because he was the man God sent to minister
to them. Christ warned us, he gives several
warnings in the scriptures, but he warned us through Paul of
the man of sin, the son of perdition. Go over to 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And look at verse 4. This is the description of the
man of sin, the son of perdition. This is the abomination of desolation. That's what he's called. Now
listen to him. This is his description. Who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God. or that is worshipped, so that
he is God, sitteth in the temple of God, in the house of God,
showing himself that he is God. You know, through the years,
any time some wicked tyrant comes to power, men will say, oh, there's
the Antichrist, there's the son of perdition. You know, men are
always looking for the Antichrist. Well, John said this in 1 John
2.18, Little children, it's the last time. And as you've heard
that Antichrist shall come, even right now, there are many Antichrists. It's not just one, there are
many. Here's the description of Antichrist. Who is a liar,
but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ. He's Antichrist
that denies the Father and the Son. Antichrist is every fallen
son of Adam by nature. Because every fallen son of Adam
by nature is anti-Christ. Anti-Christ. By nature we deny
the Father and the Son. And the sin nature that's still
in you, the sin nature that's still in all God's saints is
just as carnal as it ever was. If God left us to ourselves,
we would oppose God and we exalt ourself above all that's called
God. That's what our sin nature is.
The self-made religious man is who Antichrist is. He sits in
the temple of God showing himself that he is God. Showing to all
that he is God. How? By giving self glory in
doing what only God can do. by giving self glory in what
only God can do. That's the essence of will worship.
Think about will worship. What is that? That's the worship
of a man's will. It's the worship of a man's works.
Man glorying in self as having accomplished what only God can
do. Eve had no idea this would be
the outcome when the devil said to her, God doth know in the
day that you eat that fruit, your eyes shall be opened and
you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. The lie that men
preach, the lie teaches this. This is the essence of the lie.
Christ laid down his life for every sinner without exception
to give every sinner a chance to be saved. But the ultimate
factor in your salvation is your decision for Christ. Your choice
for Christ. Your choice for Christ. That
is a lie. That's a lie. That exalts man. That makes a man and men who
are in that religion say, I did that. I chose God. I chose God. God's people are gonna choose
the Lord. but we're not going to glory
we chose him. I'll show you that. There's another form of this
lie, and it claims Christ has begun the work. It declares he
begun the work. You didn't take the first step.
He did that, but he's begun the work, but now he depends on you
to help him complete the work, by your works. Every man that
imagines that he made Christ Lord by his choice, Every man
that thinks that he did it by his choice or made himself to
be born again or however they describe it, that he did it by
his will or whatever, that man has chosen self to be his king. And every man that imagines that
once a man's given faith that he's making himself righteous
or more holy by his works, that man has chosen self to be his
king and his savior. He worships his will. He worships
his works. It has a fair show in the flesh.
It puts on a good show, Paul said, but it does not mortify
the flesh. It, you know, we're always trying
to hurt themselves and or deny themselves in some way and to
show, but he said that shows that puts on a good show, but
it's not mortifying the flesh at all. The flesh actually loves
that. The flesh loves that. What the flesh hates is when
Christ gets all the glory. That's what the flesh hates.
And only God can mortify the flesh. Salvation is by God's
will. It's not by man's will. God chose
whom he would by the free and sovereign grace of God, not based
on anything in man. Paul said, so then it's not of
man that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
shows mercy. And every sinner that believes
on Christ, John said, they were born not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The
righteousness and the holiness of God, just like we saw this
morning, is Christ. Christ our righteousness, Christ
our holiness, he's the salvation of his people. He's the author
and finisher of faith. And whatever works men want to
add in between to try to take some of that glory, Christ is,
gets the glory. He is the glory. Until God creates
a new man within the center, the king and savior we always
choose is self. That's what's represented in
them choosing Saul. And then secondly, I want you
to just to look here at Saul himself, and we behold the sin
nature of every fallen son of Adam, and we behold the sin nature
still in us. Let's see why God has to keep
saving us from beginning to end. Why does he save us as the author
and finisher? Why is it beginning to end to
Alpha and Omega, our Lord who saves? Well, David, you know,
is the true king. God had anointed David, he's
the true king. And the word Christ, the word
Messiah, that means anointed. Christ is the true king. He's
the true king. But for David to take the throne,
Saul is gonna have to die. He's gonna have to die. And for
Christ to reign in his child, our old man of sin has to die. For God to elect our old man
of sin, before God was crucified when Christ died on Calvary's
cross. He's already died under the wrath of God because that's
what we deserve, but Christ took our place and bore that for us.
That's the good news. Oh, I pray God would just bless
this to the heart today and cause you to bow to Christ. He took
the place of his people and he He is our salvation. He's our righteousness. He's
our righteousness. Our old man was crucified. God
says the old man is dead in his people. But now, and then when
he rose to God's right hand, all his people arose in Christ
to God's right hand. And in the new birth, when we
saw this morning, God creates a new man. He creates the new
man in Christ's righteousness and Christ's holiness. Now we
start believing Christ, we start following him, and it's all about
Christ. Paul said, I through the law
am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I'm crucified
with Christ. That's how I'm dead to the law.
Nevertheless I live, yet I don't even live, Paul said. It's not
me. It's not my power. Christ lives
in me. And the life I'm living now,
I live in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God. That's not
by faith in the Son of God, though we do live by faith in the Son
of God. He's saying it's by Christ's faithfulness keeping me and preserving
me and working in my new man and keeping me stayed on him.
And he said, he loved me and he gave himself for me. If he
laid down his life for his people and loved his people, do you
think he's going to let his people go? No way. And this is how serious
this thing is of looking anywhere but to Christ. He said, I do
not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteous come by the
law, then Christ is dead in vain. But our old man of sin, now he
died in Christ on the cross before God, but our old man of sin is
very much alive in us. And you that are born of God,
our old man of sin is very much alive. He's alive in every regenerated
sanctified child of God. And just like Saul continually
tried to kill David, just like he was just badgering David and
pursuing David and trying to hurt David the whole time David
All of David's life up to this point, that's what our old man
is constantly doing to his people, to you and me. As long as he
lives, that's how it's going to be. As long as this old man
in us lives, that's how it will be. Christ must be our King and
Savior. You know why? We can't save ourselves
from the Saul that's in us. That's why. David trusted God
to save him. He trusted Christ to save him
from Saul, and we're trusting Christ to save us from the Saul
that sent us. God thinks each time that God turns us from ourselves
to Christ, He makes us see something of our old man of sin, and something
of Christ being our salvation alone. Every time. That's how
He turns you. Saul here, three sons, he had,
and they all died. His armor bearer died, and all
his men died, and he died, all in the same day. One of those
sons was a good son, Jonathan. He was a good son. Jonathan was. But you see, if Jonathan had
remained alive, Jonathan would have been a hindrance to David
taking the throne, because He was the heir apparent. He was
the heir of Saul, for one, and people, the children of Israel
liked Jonathan. And there would have been some
opposition to oppose David taking the throne because they would
have wanted Jonathan. And so God took Jonathan's life. What were these sons? They were
the fruit of Saul. They were the fruit of Saul.
And brethren, when God first comes in grace, God has to make
us see that all our fruit is dead fruit. Everything we thought
was in the plus column is in the minus column. Everything
we thought that was gain has to be counted as loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ. We have to be brought
to count it but dumb because it's all dead fruit. And as God's
saints, brethren, any good works that we do, God's going to work
some good works in His people. And that's like Jonathan here.
He was a good fruit that Saul had produced. But our good fruits,
we have to be made to see our good fruits. are not what's saving
us, or there'll be a hindrance to us just like Jonathan would
have been a hindrance to David reigning. Our good fruit should
be a hindrance to Christ reigning in our hearts if God left us
to look to our good fruit, our good works. Christ makes us see
we can't even trust our good works. This is what we saw this
morning when Christ comes in the first hour and he doesn't
stop doing this. Paul said, I was alive without
the Lord once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
All my fruit that I thought was fruit I saw was just dead fruit.
I saw I was dead. And it didn't stop there. Paul
said, he said, whenever I was taken into captivity by my sin
nature, And he said, and when the Lord delivered him, he said,
this is what the Lord made him to see. The Lord made him to
cry out, O wretched man that I am. This is what the Lord keeps
his people seeing, O wretched man that I am. I can't even trust
my good fruit. And he cries out, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? And the Lord says, makes him,
brings him to say, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Natural man gets tired of hearing this. He just does. You know
how many times Brother Henry had preached this message when
I heard it the first time? 30 years. 30 years. And kept preaching it for 30
more years. And brethren, God has to keep
this new in your heart. If you don't, you know what will
happen? I'm just tired of that. Give me the garlics and leeks
of Egypt. Give me something tasty. Tickle
my ears. That's what the Lord said, there'll
come a time when men will want their ears tickled. You know
what that involves? You pick up the paper, the preacher, he
looks, finds some current event, and then he says, now let me
see, let me find a scripture where I can jump off from, and
he reads a verse of scripture to kind of have something to
do with it, and then he talks about the current event, and
he just talks about whatever he wants to talk about, leave
it with a moral story like Aesop say, well, everybody's ears tickled,
and everybody goes home, everybody's happy. We've got to be safe from
that. We've got to be made to love
the gospel of Christ and want to hear the gospel of Christ
alone. That's what God's doing in His
people. We see how deceitful and powerful our sin nature is.
When Saul was sore wounded, here he is, he's been wounded. This
man is wounded. And he's about to die and he
knows it. and he still feared man rather than God. He still feared man rather than
God. He tried to save his flesh by
choosing how he would die so that these wicked men couldn't
take him. Look, he said in verse 4, Saul
said to 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 killed himself. He feared man
rather than God. When Christ walked this earth,
there were many, many that believed on him, but they refused to confess
him. You know why? They feared man
rather than God. They're going to lose some friends.
They're going to lose some family. They're going to offend mom and
daddy if they trusted Christ rather than look into their own
flesh and turn it back to the law and to works. It's going
to cost them. So they thrust themselves upon
their own sword and died. It's spiritual suicide to trust
yourself. to fear man rather than God.
Our sin nature would have us to just look to self alone. That's
what the result of the fall is. Even mortally wounded, Saul was
trying to save his flesh from being abused by men. He'd rather
take his own life and meet God in justice than call on God for
mercy. That's suicide. That's suicide. Even if his armor-bearer had
done it, it would have been suicide. Spiritual suicide. Saul is our sinful nature, brethren. Our sinful nature is only unbelief.
Our sinful nature is only pride and glory. And our sinful nature
fears man. Our sinful nature wants to be
our own king and our own savior rather than trusting Christ Jesus
alone. That's what the devil wanted.
I will. I will ascend. I will. I'll set my throne on
high. I will. That's the heart he puts in us
by our fault, by the corruption he brought us into. That's why it takes the power
of God to give us life and faith in Christ. And that's why it
takes the power of God to keep preserving us in faith and keeping
us looking only to Christ. God has no pleasure in the death
of the wicked. He has no pleasure in the death
of the wicked. It's not going to bring him any pleasure to
see sinners perish in their sin. And if sinners perish in their
sins, it's no way God's fault. If we perish in our sin, it's
not God's fault. It's our fault. You believe on Christ today and
you'll be saved. That's the word. Believe on Christ
today, and you'll be saved. Cease ye from man, and trust
the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved. And believer, whatever's
troubling you, I'll tell you, I guarantee you why it's troubling
you. You're not believing Christ. That's always our problem. Cease
from man. Cease looking to any man, especially
to self, and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. Faith in Christ is the obedience
God commands. Look over here with me at Deuteronomy
30 and verse 11. Deuteronomy 30 and verse 11. This commandment, Deuteronomy
30 verse 11, He's talking about keeping the
commandments and statutes written in the book of the law. He gave
them all to him and said, now keep these statutes, keep this
law. Turn to the Lord God with all
your heart, with all your soul. Now verse 11, for this commandment
which I commanded thee this day, it's not hidden from thee, neither
is it far off. It's not in heaven that thou
shouldst say, Who go up for us to heaven and bring it to us,
that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea
that thou shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us and bring
it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? But the word's
very nigh unto thee. It's in your mouth and in your
heart that you may do it. Verse 15, See I've set before
thee this day life and good and death and evil. and that I commanded
thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his way,
and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments,
that thou mayest live and multiply, and the Lord thy God shall bless
thee in the land where thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart
turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn
away, and worship other gods, and serve them. I denounce unto
you this day, that you shall surely perish, and that you shall
not prolong your days upon the land, which thou passest over
Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record
this day against you, that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, that both
thou and thy seed may live. that thou mayest love the Lord
thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou
mayest cleave unto him. For he is thy life, and the length
of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord
sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give
them." Let's read the Holy Spirit's commentary on that. Turn to Romans
10. Romans 10. Pharisees heard that
and they said, you know what they said? Just what we saw this
morning. All that the Lord has commanded, we'll do it. We'll
do it. You can read in Romans, you can
read in Romans, at the end of Romans 9, they didn't attain
it though. They didn't attain it because
they didn't seek it by faith. They were seeking it by the works
of the law. Look here, let's hear the Spirit, verse 1 of Romans
10. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I bear them
record. They have a zeal of God, but
it's not according to the knowledge of the apostles. They have no
idea who God is. They don't have any idea who
righteousness is. For their being ignorant of God's
righteousness, going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Here's the way of death right
here. Moses described it, the righteousness which is of the
law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
That's it, there's the way of death. You want the way of death.
That's the way the Pharisees chose. They were fine, whited
sepulchers outwardly, looked good outwardly, but they were
dead. They had no righteousness, they
had no holiness. Look at verse 6, now here's the way of life
that he just spoke about, but the righteousness which is of
faith speaks on this wise, say not in thy heart, this is right
from that verse we just read, say not in thy heart who shall
ascend to the heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ
again from the dead, But what saith it? The words now thee,
even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith
which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confessions
made unto salvation. For the scripture said, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they
believe in whom they've not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? How shall they preach except they be sent, as it's
written, how beautiful to the feet of them that preach the
gospel of priests and bring glad tidings of good things? You know
what he did? He brought it all the way back to God. And he said,
God's the one who's the cause of all this. He sends his preacher.
Christ blesses this word. Christ gives you the heart. Christ
is the king and savior of his people. He's the one that brings
us to believe. And when God works this in a
sinner, you know what he's going to do? He's not going to say,
well, I chose life. No, he's going to say, God did
it all. God did it all. This is gospel,
the gospel command that goes forth, and the Spirit of God,
He creates this new heart, and the Spirit of God keeps renewing
the new heart, and the Spirit of God keeps renewing the new
heart, and the Spirit of God keeps, He gives you faith, and
He keeps sustaining faith, and He keeps growing you in faith,
and He keeps granting you repentance, and granting you repentance,
and granting you repentance, Because we have a sin nature
that's just as vile and wicked as Saul, and we've got to be
turned from him all the time and kept looking to Christ only.
By grace are you saved through faith. That's not just in the
first moment he calls you. That's from beginning to end.
By grace are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourself.
It's the gift of God, lest any man should boast. What's the
end then of the unbeliever and the believer? What's the end
of the unbeliever and the believer? Saul tried to save himself from
the enemy's abuse, but he couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. They
hung his body up beside their idols. They took his body, hung it up
beside their idols. I cut his head off and hung his
body up beside their idols. Saul's idol was Saul. But you
know those idols they had, They were just an outward carving
that represented themselves. They were worshiping the same
God as Saul was. And there he is. They set his body up beside
all their other idols. Self-made religious men all worship
the same idol. They all worship the same idol,
it's self. They got about a jillion different
denominations and all go by different names based on some carnal practice
that one practices that the other doesn't practice. And that's
the only thing that separated self from those that killed him.
That's the only thing, or those that took him and hung his body
up. It's just one sinner, and really the carnal difference,
if you really get down to it, what's the carnal difference?
This is what it amounts to. It's one sinner, one religious
sinner thinking he's better than another religious sinner. That's
the difference. That's really all it is, because
it's all just idol worship. That's all it is. But there's
no difference in them whatsoever. Why? All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That's true of me, you, and every
idolater in this world. But, so Saul died. His body's destroyed. But that
wasn't the end. He's cast out forever into eternal
darkness. Because he trusted Saul. Because
he was looking to his hand to save him. But Jonathan died too. Jonathan died too. And it seemed
like he believed God, and if he did, it was well for him. Physical
death's gonna come to the unrighteous and the righteous alike. He died
in battle just like Saul did. And you gonna suffer things just
like the unregenerate, unbeliever, reprobate's gonna suffer. But
how different after death? The unrighteous meet God without
Christ and are cast out into hell forever. But here's what
he said just then we just read it. The righteous meet God found
in Christ's righteousness alone and they're accepted of God and
they dwell with Christ forever. You know what everybody in glory
is going to say? They're going to have one, one that they glory
in and it's going to be Christ. He did absolutely everything
from beginning to end. Go with me to Hosea 3. I want
you to see this. I quoted this at the beginning. Hosea chapter 3. This is what God said to him. I'm sorry, Hosea 13. He said, O Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself, but in me is thine help. I'll be thy king, I will be thy
king. Where is any other that may save
thee in all thy cities? And thy judges, of whom thou
saidest, Give me a king and princes? I gave thee a king in mine anger,
and took him away in my wrath. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound
up. His sin is hid. The sorrows of a travailing woman
shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should
not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children."
But look what he says. I will ransom them from the power
of the grave. I will rename them from death.
O death, I will be thy plagues, O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from
mine eyes." Do you see that? God said, I'm your king. I'm
your savior. I'm the only one that can save
you from death. That is the God we worship, brethren. That is the God who is our salvation. And if you trust Him, you shall
be saved. I pray God work that in our heart
and make us trust Him, keep trusting Him, and never let us look back
to the soul that we are by nature. Amen. All right, Brother Greg.