Our text is in 1 Samuel 31. 1 Samuel chapter 31. This is the final chapter of
the book of 1 Samuel. And these last, I think it's
five chapters, these last five chapters have been flipping back
and forth between David and Saul. back and forth between them,
and looking at them, in that context, of these few final chapters,
we see two men. Both men are guilty of sin. You could see it. Both. Saul
clearly, in turning to death, he seeks the living among the
dead, in turning to a witch at Endor, The answer he receives
is death. If you turn to death, if you
look to death, the answer you receive is death. There's no
comfort. There's no rest in it. It's lies and deceit. It's death. David, on his part, went over
to the Philistines. He sided with the Philistines
so that in chapter 29 we see a man who's about to go to battle
on the side of the Philistines against the people of Israel,
against God's people. What are you thinking, David?
The only reason why he didn't go to battle against Israel is
because God delivered him. And then at the end of that chapter,
the Lord gives us the gospel, gives us a picture of the gospel
that shows us what the reason why God may be just to David
and just to forgive David is because of Christ. And it's revealed
in the gospel of that chapter. Well, now we come to Saul. And looking at this chapter,
we see a shameful, grievous death. of Saul. It's a shameful way
that it's described of his death. And one of the great mysteries
with Saul is that, well, let me just say this. Between Saul
and David, the only difference that God shows us is the grace
of God, the grace of God for David. Here's two sinners. Why
is God so gracious to David? Because he will be gracious for
Christ's sake and David. But now we come to Saul here.
And it's a great mystery, because we have a man here who began
so well, had such a good beginning, if you will, such great promise.
When Samuel, the prophet, was introducing him to the people,
he said, see ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there
is none like him among all the people. He was quite the specimen
of a man. He was a good head taller than
all the others, a fine man, a good man. He was a humble man in the
beginning. But then he begins to fall, and
that grievously, and to sin, and to do things so that he must
be removed. He must die, that a man that
another man, a worthy man, a man after God's own heart, would
be put in his place. And he would be put in his place.
And what we're going to see here is a picture of the gospel, which
is spanned over many chapters here, many chapters here. It's
another picture. This book, this rock is a mine
full of veins of precious stones, of precious metals, some veins
of silver. some veins of gold, some veins
of palladium and platinum, of precious stones, rubies and emeralds
and sapphires, amethysts, right? These beautiful gems that are
in here. And well, here's another one.
Here's another one that we'll see here tonight. So Saul comes
forth as this Adam-like figure. And he's a fine man. When he
was created and put in the garden, He's a fine man, an Adam-like
figure, but because of sin, Adam must be reborn. We need the last
Adam to arise, the last Adam. The old man must die and the
new man be born and rise again. And that's pictured, of course,
in David. So Saul's part, he's the first
king of Israel. He's the firstborn, right? He
comes forth first. And that's clearly a picture
of this old man of flesh which is first, which comes forth first,
born in this flesh. And then David serves as that
which is born of the Spirit, that which is secondborn, the
new birth. This man of flesh, and we see
him fighting with everything he's got to deny Christ, his
rightful rule and place as king. And David's sovereignly appointed
of God. And so David will be put in place. Saul will die. Saul will fall. And David shall arise as the
rightful king of Almighty God, who put him there. Because who
can resist God? Who can resist God? God is going
to accomplish his sovereign will and purpose. So Saul is this
first king, and yet it isn't long before we see him fall in
sin. Just like Adam, he broke the
law of God. He made sacrifice unto God before
battle as though he were the high priest. He had no business
doing that. And so he sinned grievously.
And Samuel said to Saul, thou hast done foolishly. You've done
foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment
of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would
the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever."
There's Adam. Adam did foolishly in what he
did. He did foolishly. And so it's not that the kingdom
wasn't established under Adam's hand. 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 forward,
we see Saul waxing worse and worse in sin. But the gospel
picture revealed in every believer is this, that the old man of
flesh must die. We die. This old man is dead,
and he must die. He must be put to death with
Christ, with the body of Christ on the tree of the cross, where
the sins of God's people were justly settled by Christ for
us as our surety once and for all. And the image of Christ
must be stamped in the place of the image of Adam, fallen
Adam. Christ's image is stamped in
its place. And so this is pictured for us here with this fall of
Saul, and then the rising of David, the rising of the new
man, the second born, the last Adam, if you will. And so, therefore,
for David to reign, according to the anointing of God, Saul
must die, and then David rises in his place as the king, the
sovereign, the Lord, over his people. So, we're going to read
through this chapter together, and we'll see how these closing
hours of Saul reveal something to us of the salvation of God
for his people. But beginning back in 1 Samuel
28, 1 Samuel 28, verse 4, we're told of a battle that's shaping
up. This is the battle that we're
going to see in chapter 31. But it begins here, verse 4,
and the Philistines gathered themselves together and came
and pitched in Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel
together, and they pitched in Gilboa. Now, Shunam is a city
situated in the tribe of Issachar. This battle takes place right
at the border between Issachar and Manasseh, just beneath Issachar
on the east side of the River Jordan. So the east side of Jordan
here, you have Issachar and then Manasseh there. And Issachar,
that name, if you recall, means and higher or wages, the wages
of and higher. And it happened that Issachar
is the fifth born son of Leah, who when Reuben, her first born,
was coming out of the field, had some mandrakes, and Rachel
said to Leah, give me some of your son's mandrakes. And Leah
said, what, you have my husband, and now you want my mandrakes
too? And so Rachel said, fine, you take Jacob tonight. Just
give me the mandrakes. And she conceived that night.
Leah conceived. And she said, that's my hire.
God hath given me my hire, my wages, is this son here, Issachar. And that's how Issachar was.
Well, here the sense is that the Philistines are gathered
in Issachar. They are the wages. ready to
be poured out upon Saul for his sin. Saul's about to receive
the wages of his sin. And the day has now come when
Saul shall drink up the cup full of his wages. And so the Philistines
now come pouring out of that cup down upon Saul. And it says back in chapter 31,
verse 1. Here we pick up. Now the Philistines fought against
Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines
and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa." This is a very sad description. It's a sad and grim description. This is a picture of our nature
being overrun and consumed by sin, just sin just flooding in
there and just taking over this nature. And here's Israel. They
bear the name of the elect people of God, the chosen people of
God. And their land is being overrun by the Philistines, just
flooding in there and taking over and just driving them out.
They are just running. They line up for battle, and
they begin to fall immediately and retreat and run away before
the enemy, falling down slain in Mount Gilboa in Manasseh. in Manasseh. And Gilboa is a
swollen heat. It's a fountain. They are a bubbling,
boiling fountain in a mount of a swelling heat, which pictures
what? This pride, the pride of this
flesh. And in our pride, pride goeth
before the fall. And there they are, falling in
their pride. They lined up, believing they
were the people of God and could drive back the enemy. But they
fell, downslain before their enemies. And if we're putting
ourselves in the place of Saul as we look at this battle unfolding,
understand that by nature we are that cocky, proud, arrogant,
fool in ourselves. We're the ones who are ignorant
in ourselves. And in a time when it's the day
of a green tree, as it were, when it's a good day, we're very
confident in ourselves. But as we'll see, all the things
that Saul turns to and trusts in begins to just fall. Boom,
boom, boom, boom. Just starts dropping. very quickly
when the enemy comes in, when the wages of sin come pouring
down upon him, and none of it serves to save Saul. None of
it serves to provide Saul any comfort or any relief. And we
see here a picture that all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. This is a picture of every one
of us by nature. If you don't know your own black
heart, you won't agree with me. But if you've seen what you are
in yourself and how we are and our thoughts and what we turn
to in ourselves, you know this is a picture of what I am by
nature. Maybe I don't do exactly what
Saul does, but I'm a sinner by nature. I'm a sinner by nature
in Adam. And so we're going to look at
the next four verses, and they detail the dismantling of Saul's
confidences. They just start falling apart
here and they perish quickly when the judgment comes. It's
as our Lord said, from him that hath not shall be taken away
even that which he hath. What little Saul has, even that
goes, even that falls, that gets stripped away from him. And so
the first thing we encounter here is his fruit. the fruit
of man. Will that endure the judgment?
Is that going to stand up to the judgment of God? The things
that I've done, the works that I've brought forth, the fruit
that I've brought forth in this world, will that stand before
the judgment of God? Verse two, and the Philistines
followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons, his fruit. And the Philistines slew Jonathan
and Abinadab, And Melchizedek, Melchizedek, Saul's sons. All Saul's sons perished before
the Philistines. And think about that. Dear Jonathan,
a fine man, a good man. He was a faithful man, a faithful
friend of David. Jonathan, Jonathan who loved
David, who loved God, who trusted God. He falls. Boom. He falls. And Abinadab falls.
And Melchizedek falls. All of the sons of Saul, none
are spared. And they picture our fruit, our
works of righteousness that we would trust in, that we think
this, surely this will save me. Surely this will help me. Surely
this will be accepted of God. This will be my acceptance. And
here we see it. Boom. They just drop. Even the
best of them. Dear Jonathan Falls. And then you think about Saul
before the law. We're shown Saul before the law. He's a law breaker. He's a law breaker. Back in chapter
15, we see his disobedience to the command of God. We see his
disobedience to the word that God had given him when the Lord
by Samuel said, go and slay all the Amalekites. Put everyone
to death. Men, woman, child, and animals. The whole, everything. Just put
it all to death. Destroy the whole thing. Saul thought he did it. And Samuel
said, well, why do I hear this bleeding of sheep in my ear?
If you were faithful to the word, why do I still hear these sheep?
And Saul said unto Samuel, I've sinned. You're right. I've transgressed
the commandment of the Lord in thy words. And Samuel said unto
him, in the end there, well, the Lord has taken the kingdom
from you. It's rent from you. It's rent from you. And it's
been given to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou. This is speaking to us. We're
the ones that are lawbreakers. But thanks be to God that the
kingdom has been given to one better than us, a faithful one,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in Saul we see ourselves
in the natural man, this old man of flesh before the law of
God. Listen to Romans 7.5. 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." All
right? That fruit that man thinks is
his righteousness by the law, well, he's a lawbreaker. And
so the fruit that he brings forth by that law, it's death, death. And it falls just like Jonathan,
Abinadab, Melchizedek. They all fell. And so Saul's
three sons have died before him, and they could not save him from
the pursuing Philistines. And then we see in comes the
arrows of the enemy, verse 3. And the battle went sore against
Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was sore wounded of the
archers. And so these darts and arrows
come flying in like the accusations of the enemy. And they land,
poof, poof, and they start hitting. And they wound him. And now he's
wounded. He's succumbing to these accusations. You're a sinner, Saul. You've
broken the law, Saul. This is the word of God coming
for you, Saul. This is the time. The wages of
your sin are coming against you. You shall die this day, just
as you heard. You're going to die, Saul. And
he's fallen before these accusations. They've wounded him. And except
we have an advocate. We shall die by these accusations. Because what are we going to
say? No, you're wrong. No, you're right. I am a sinner.
I have broken the law of God. I am guilty before God. I can't
stand here and justify myself. But if we have an advocate, one
who speaks to us and shows us what he has done, our salvation,
our deliverance, now we can withstand, by faith, those fiery darts. Next, Saul is made like unto
a man in his dying moments who begins to seek every which way. Tell me something. Is there any
good word that you have for me? I'm dying. I'm dying. Do you
have something to tell me that will save me and deliver me from
the mocking of hell and death? Look at verse four. Then Saul
said unto his armor-bearer, ah, trusty armor-bearer, you've been
with me all this time. 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 him. Saul sees that his end is very
near, and the Philistines are hot pursuing him. They're right
on him, and they're soon going to be there. Overwhelming. He's
coming over the land, and they're going to find him there. And
he knows, they're going to sport with me. They're going to mock
me. As they're slowly killing me, they're going to put me to
death, and they're going to shame me. And please, put me to death
with your sword. Put me to death with your sword.
And so here's a man being tortured by the thought of the coming
judgment for his sins. He's tortured by this thought.
that he's going to come into judgment for his wicked works. And Saul is seeking a sword. His seeking a sword is as a man
desperate for a word of salvation. Trusty armor bearer, you've been
with me. Put your sword through me. Nope, I ain't doing it. I got nothing for you. I got
nothing to give you any peace, nothing to give you any deliverance
from this mocking that's coming upon you. And finally, he tells
himself whatever lies he has to say to try and give him some
peace on his deathbed, but it's all a vain comfort. And I say
that because why? The sword is likened to the word,
the word of God in scriptures. Our Lord Jesus Christ said in
Revelation 2.16, or else I will come unto thee quickly and fight
against them with the sword of my mouth." My word will judge
you. My word will judge you. My word
will come against you. And the reality is no carnal
man can speak peace to your soul. It doesn't matter what I say.
I can't give you any peace, but the Lord Jesus Christ can. As we saw As we've been seeing
at the end of John chapter 20 and Luke 24, when Christ came
and appeared in the midst of his disciples and said, peace
be unto you. And he opened their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures, that they might know
him and have peace with God and fellowship with God in the word. in Christ's word, which comforted
them. Saul was looking for that. He
was looking for that sword. He was looking for comfort. And
he found no comfort. And the sentence is, don't delay. Cry out to him for mercy. Today
is the day of salvation. Seek his word now while it's
in a good day. Don't wait till you're being
overwhelmed and overrun and fearful and afraid and have no comfort.
Hear the word and cry out to the Lord for his mercy now. As it says in Hebrews 4.11, let
us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall
after the same example of unbelief, like we see pictured there in
Saul. For the word of God is quick, it's 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." And
so that's why this word, it strips us of our armor, it takes it
off, and shows us our nakedness, shows us our shame, and shows
us our need of Christ, and shows him to be the Savior. And it's
for our good. lest we be vain, confident, proud,
arrogant boasters only to be sinners, found out to be sinners
like Saul, and to die a grievous, awful death like him. And so
looking at Saul, we're left with an awful testimony of the end
of natural man, left to himself, left to himself, forsakes his
own mercy in forsaking God. And it says, verses 5 and 6,
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 it's a very sobering and
sad end for a man who at one time seemed so wonderful, so
great, such a fine man, a remarkable beginning. Samuel asked him at
one time, he said, 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? When you were humble,
when you didn't see yourself as anything, you were useful.
God blessed you. But now you think you're something.
And so with Saul's fall, The land is then overrun by the enemy. Look at verses 7, picking up
there. And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of
the valley of Jezreel, that would be the valley of Jezreel, and
they that were on the other side of 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 Ashtaroth, an idol, and they fastened his body. They nailed his body to the wall
of Bethshan. And you think, that's a miserable
end that's laid out there. A miserable end, and yet this
is where we are in fallen Adam, like Saul here. We come forth
as disobedient lawbreakers Persons dead in trespasses and sins who
have been taken captive. Our dead bodies taken into the
home of the strong man, and they're nailed up against the wall. And
we're dead. We can't get ourselves off that
wall, that shameful wall. We're just a skin on the wall,
just hung there in defeat in celebration of the devil and
his works. And were this the end, this was
it. We'd have no hope of standing
before the true and living God. There'd be no comfort for us,
no hope, because we look at Saul and we think, I'm no better than
that man. I'm no better than that man.
I've fallen and done foolishly. I've turned from doing what I
ought to do. I was not perfect and not complete
in what I should have done. I'm just like Saul by nature.
It's what I am. There'd be no hope. But our God
shows us this, that we would hear the gospel of Jesus Christ,
because he's turning us from a vain confidence, a false hope
in our pride in what we do, in our works, in what we think is
salvation, to turn us to Him who is salvation, to Him who
is the Savior. It's that we would hear the gospel.
For the wages of sin, like is poured out on Saul, is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. hear that. And though the fruit
that we bear by the law is as filthy rags to the true and living
God, in Isaiah 64, 6, all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags, Isaiah says. He tells us, your good works,
those things you're proud of and boasting of, your righteousness
is as filthy, bloody rags in God's sight. And so it's by Christ. It's that we would hear Christ,
that by his death, putting us to death to the law, that we
might be married to Christ, that by him we would bear fruits of
righteousness. By him we bear fruit unto God. Listen to Romans 7.4. Wherefore,
my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. Your Jonathan, your Benedab,
your Melchishua, they die, but not that fruit which is of Christ.
That's fruit, which is unto God, born in us by Christ, his workmanship. And now we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, so that when those
fiery arrows fly and those darts come flying in of what a sinner
you are, we have an advocate with the Father. We have one
to go to, to confess our sins and to ask him for mercy. for
grace, that he gives us faith that we may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. How? In the armor of God, which
is given to us of Christ, made of his striking, of his workmanship,
and fitted upon us, taking the shield of faith wherewith we
are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, so that
you're not wounded and destroyed by them and overtaken by sin. And so the only hope that a sinner,
someone like Saul, a picture of all men by nature, is the
Lord Jesus Christ, who, though we were fallen before our enemies,
overrun by them, and any good fruit that we thought we had,
we're all put to death. The arrows came in, hitting their
mark. We fell before them, because what could we say? And we could
find no word of salvation, no word of peace. But Christ came. Christ came. Right? But before
them, our miserable frames were just taken up, our dead bodies,
and just nailed up there in Bethshan. Bethshuah, or Bethshan, whatever
it is. I think it means resting. It's
just a habitation, a final resting place, an awful place. No peace
there. No peace there on the wall in
Bethshan. And if that's how it ended, God
would be just, and he'd be just to end it right there. But that's
not the end of the story. That's not how it ends, because
something more is told in this account here, in these final
verses of this chapter, that contain the hope of the believer,
the hope of the child of God. which is promised to us through
a Savior, who comes to deliver us from our death and destruction."
And that's what 1 John tells us, 1 John 3, 8, that, was it,
he that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth
from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. He came to destroy them, to snap
them in half, to break them, to deliver His people from that
work which the devil had done, that fall that we fell in in
Adam. So let's read these final verses
in verse 11. 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 there is much here, much here in these verses that declare
what the Son of God did for His people who had fallen, His people
who were overrun and overtaken with the Philistines. What He
did in accordance with the will of God our Father by coming in
the flesh as the Christ to save His people and to give us a better
hope, a more sure hope, a certain salvation. We see what we are
in Saul, but now we'll see what we are in David, in Christ, and
what the Lord has done for us. This Jesus Christ, he is the
valiant man for his people. It is pictured here in these
valiant men, Christ is the valiant man. He is the captain of our
salvation, made perfect through sufferings. He's the captain. He's the value man. He is the
savior. And Saul's death is such a shameful
end. It's such a shameful end, if
we're being honest here. But it's no more shameful than
what I am in seeing myself in my own flesh. It's no more shameful
than what I can't stand here and put down Saul as if I'm any
better than Saul. I've got nothing in myself to
boast in or to be proud of. We are blessed to read such wonderful
words of what Christ has done for us, for both he that sanctifies
and they that are sanctified. He that sanctifies Jesus Christ
and you that believe him, who are sanctified by him and covered
by his blood, we're all of one for which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren. He's not ashamed, though we and
ourselves in our own works We're ashamed. We blush to think of
what we've done, what we've thought, what we are in this flesh. But
he says he's not ashamed because of his blood, of his righteousness,
of what he's done perfectly to the full to save his people from
their sins. And then, because he left the
father's bosom, he went out of the veil of heaven's glory. He
came into the darkness, into the night, this dark world, the
night of this world, to seek and to save the lost sheep of
his people. He came into the night. He went
to find his people, and having fulfilled all the righteousness
of the law for his people fully, so that all that stood against
us, demanding justice, demanding our death, like the Philistines
overtaking the land, he put death to death. He put to death the
grave. He took care of all the enemies
of God's people. As our surety, he satisfied the
justice of God so as to deliver us from the hand of God's justice,
that we go free. He paid the price that we go
free, that we might serve him in spirit and in truth and worship
him in truth, not making up lies, not telling you that we're good
when we're not, no. were sinners saved by his power. Paul wrote, You, being dead in
your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
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. Like Saul, we were nailed to
the wall of Bethshan, while Christ took all our enemies and nailed
them to the cross, put them to death through an open shame.
As it says, having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly. He made a public spectacle of
them. He shamed them. He turned it all around on them
and defeated them and delivered his people, triumphing over them
in it. And so in his work upon the cross,
he went into the strongman's house Take that down, took us
off the wall, and brought us out of that house. All his children
that were nailed up and bloodied and goried and dead and just
shameful, took us right to them. Bring them out. Bring them out.
They're my people. They're delivered. They're free. They're mine. They
go with me. And that's what we read. When
a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.
But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him,
he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth
the spoils." And so he delivered us, us all being taken out by
those valiant men. It's a picture of what Christ
has done to secure our salvation from that awful habitation and
bring us out into a into a heavenly, eternal inheritance and salvation
in him. And he returned to Jabesh, which
is in the tribe of Gad on the other side of Jordan there. He took the flesh of their bodies
and burn them up with fire. And God, you know, means fortune,
like a troop, a fortune. And we wouldn't use that word,
but we are blessed in Christ. We are wonderfully blessed in
Christ that he should do this for us, that a troop came out
in Christ and delivered us from all our enemies and did this
good for us. And so We died with the body
of Christ. That picture of the burning of
their bodies with fire, the burning of their flesh with fire, it's
a picture of us who were in the body of Christ when he went to
the cross and bore the fiery wrath of God, which was our due,
and quenched the fires of hell against us. He took it all and quieted the
wrath of God which was against us. Knowing this, Romans 6, 6,
that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin
might be destroyed. Pictured in that flesh being
burned up that henceforth we should not serve sin. It has
no more power over us. We're not in that place in Bethshan. We are delivered from it, brethren. And we're in Jabesh, which means
dried up. It's dried up. The wrath of God
is dried up against you in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's pictured
there by what they did next. They took their bones and buried
them under a tree at Jabesh. and fasted seven days. That tree
at Jabesh is a picture. It speaks to the cross that our
Lord and Savior was crucified upon, upon that tree, bearing
the curse for his people to take it away, to deliver that curse
from us. And so that all that we were
in Adam is now buried with Christ and hid. It's put away, brethren. It's gone forever. For ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. He's done it. He's done it, brethren. He's
satisfied at all. And so that's the gospel there
at the close of 1 Samuel 31. That's the gospel. And again,
there's many, many veins of precious metals and stones and pictures,
but that's the gospel there, the hope that we have in Christ. Now, in case someone's wondering,
this isn't about whether or not Saul was personally saved or
not. I don't know what Saul was. Was Saul saved by the grace of
God? Well, if he was saved, it was by the grace of God, right?
The scriptures teach us that it pleases God to reveal himself
in those that he saves. And we don't see that in this
specific thing here, but to his own master, Saul stands or falls. Who am I to say what it is? God's grace is sufficient to
save to the uttermost in Christ. But what is clearly seen here
in Saul is that he pictures what all men are in the old man of
flesh in Adam. And that man must die. And we
died with Christ. If we're his, we died with him
in his body on the tree. that the new man be born of his
grace, that Christ's image be stamped in its place, that we're
born again in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's pictured here
in the death of Saul and traced out for us here in what these
men of Jabesh did for him, and then what follows, the rise of
David. So you see more of it at a high
level there, you see that beautiful picture of the gospel where Saul,
the old man of flesh, dies and David, the picture of Christ,
rises and lives and rules and reigns. And that's what the Lord
does in his people. And so what it means for individuals
like Saul, I can't say, but this account does give us a picture
of the gospel and these two men, Saul and David, to show us what
God does in saving his people Entirely by grace in Christ in
Christ. So I pray the Lord Bless that
word to our hearts