Now the Philistines fought against
Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines
and fell down slain in Mount Geboa. And the Philistines followed
hard upon Saul and upon his sons. And the Philistines slew Jonathan,
and Abinadab, and Malchishua, 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 so afraid. Therefore Saul
took a sword and fell upon him. And when his armor-bearer saw
that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and died with
him. And so Saul died, and his three
sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men that same day." 1 Samuel 31. It says there in verse 4 where
Saul asked his armor-bearer to kill him and he wouldn't do it. So Saul took his sword, held
it up and fell on it. He committed suicide, killed
himself. 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 all
his men that same day together Saul was the first king of Israel
first ever you remember that the people
wanted a king like all the other nations God had been the one
that brought him up out of Egypt God had been the one that spoke
to him through Moses. God had been the one who protected
them and provided them and fought their enemies. Led them by fire
by night and covered them by fire in the back at night and
the cloud in the day. Gave them prophets, gave them
a tabernacle, gave them a priesthood, gave them everything. God himself
reigned over them. God was the one that they looked
to. But they said, we don't want God anymore. We want a king,
like every other nation's got a king. And so they chose them
a king. They chose one by the people.
God didn't choose him. When God chose a king, he chose
one after his own heart. He chose David. And they wanted
a king, so they rejected God and they rejected his prophet,
Samuel. Now from the time that he went
to Gilgal, been in the king for about a year and a half or two,
and he offered a sacrifice there because he was tired of waiting
on Saul, he entered into the priesthood. And from that time
until this time, it'd been about 37 years, that he offered that
sacrifice up there, entered into the priesthood, and he died this
day, this day. And he died. And you know, here's
the thing. He chose darkness rather than
light. He chose to walk in his own way
instead of the word of God. He chose to despise the one whom
God had chosen and seek to kill him. He walked in darkness when there
was a holy, merciful, and gracious God. But he lived without God,
and he died without God. That's the way this man died.
And I want to go through a few things and look at this man up
to the time that he dies. Look back over with me here in
chapter 28. Chapter 28. And you know, it's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of a living God. It would be
a horrible thing to fall into the hands of a living God. And
if you don't know God, and if you don't know Christ, 1 Samuel
28. 1 Samuel 28. The first thing we see about
Samuel is, Saul is this. In verse 5, and when Saul saw
the host of the Philistines, he was afraid. He was afraid. And his heart greatly trembled. He had a trembling heart. And
I tell you, if he'd have knew God, he wouldn't have been that
way. See, he saw a great army, a great army coming out to make
war. And when he looked at that great,
big, huge army, and all the confidence that that army had. Samuel was
dead. The spirit of power and comfort
had forsaken him. God had forsaken him. David was
still a fugitive and he couldn't get to David. And here's Saul. He's poor. He's desolate. He was self-confident one time
and now his very heart trembled when he faced what he was fixing
to face in this army. And he said, what in the world
am I going to do? Oh, I've got 3,000 men and I've got Israel,
but they're not warriors. And I tell you what, his heart
greatly trembled. And I know the thing that I read
something, I read it to Shirley this morning, if I'm not mistaken. A man can sin. All men can sin. The devil can
sin in never bothering. A man can sin in his conscience
not bothering. But when a Christian sins, he
grieves over his sin. And when a Christian sins, he
confesses it before the Lord. Because he would not, he would
not live a day without God. And this man lived without God. And his heart trembled. And this
is the sad thing about it. Like all those things that I
read to you. Those people's heart do not tremble before God. They've
got a God in their imagination. But I know this. Without God's
grace, without God's grace, our hearts would fail us. Our hearts
would fail us. Fail us for fear. We'd be afraid.
We'd have great fear. I know, Paul said, I know that
in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Our own wisdom,
our own strength cannot sustain us when we're in trouble. We
have to have the grace of God. We have to have the power of
God. We have to have the comfort of God. When we don't know what
to do, when we don't know how to get out of the situation we're
in, we have to fall on God. And the only thing that would
cause our hearts to tremble is the thought that we might one
day walk away from Him. That scares me to death. That
troubles me. But I know our Lord says this,
without me, without me, you cannot do nothing. You know what nothing
is? Scott Richard says the doughnut
hole. You know when God created the
world, you know what existed? Nothing. And He said, let there be and
there was. That's all it took. And then so he had a trembling
heart. Then look down here in verse six, talk about this man
and what led him to his death. What led him to commit suicide? What led him? What was the things
that happened in his life that brought him down to the time
that he would commit suicide? And then look in verse six. And
when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not. Not by dreams, not by Urim, not
by prophets. It was a vain inquiry. Would
he inquire to the Lord? Here he is seeking God and God
answered him not. I was looking today for a message
I preached years ago and I don't know exactly, it was one of the
minor prophets where God was silent. God was silent. He wasn't here. He said, they
called on me and I'm not going to listen. And I think I found
it. I don't know if I did or not,
but it's in Zechariah chapter 7. Malachi is the last book of
the Bible. Zechariah is right before Malachi.
And so Zechariah chapter 7. But anyway, I do know this, that
the scriptures tells us That men, when God calls on them,
and God does something for them, and they don't listen, God says,
they'll call on me and I won't answer. They'll seek me and they
won't find me. They'll cry unto me, but I won't
hear their cry. And look what it said here in
verse 12 of Zechariah chapter 7. Yea, they made their hearts as
an adam's stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which
the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came a great wrath
from the Lord of Hosts. Therefore it is come to pass,
that as he cried, they would not hear. So they cried, and
I would not hear, saith the Lord of Hosts." So that's what happens. Men, God gives a man, He calls
on him, He gives him His Word, He sends preachers, He gives
them a Bible, and they leave it on their desk, or they leave
it on their coffee table, or leave it on their bedside. And
they do that, and God says, I speak to you, and I call on you, and
I cry on you. But yet, when I do that, and
you never do it to me, and your heart gets hard, Your ears get
stopped up and you said one of these days you're going to call
on me and you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to just turn
around. I ain't going to pay any attention to you. I'm not
going to pay any attention to you. And let me read another
one to you. This is a frightening thing.
And this is, you know, it's going to be awful for people. People
that we know. For our families. For our families. It's going to be awful for our
children. with all the gospel that they've heard, all the prayers
that's been prayed, all the tears that's been shed, all the witnessing
that's been done, if they do not someday turn to God in Christ,
it'll be awful. I can't imagine a worse thing.
But look what he says here, you know This shall they call upon
me, but I will not answer They shall seek me early, but they
shall not find me For they that hated knowledge and did not choose
the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel
they despised all my reproof Therefore shall they eat the
fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices
Now that's what happened to Saul Saul chose to do things his way. God told him what to do. And
he would not do it. You find so many times in so
many places. Samuel was supposed to come and
meet him. And Samuel waited and waited
and waited and didn't get there. Saul got tired of waiting. Because
Saul, Samuel was going to come up and offer sacrifices. And
they were going to worship the Lord. Saul got tired of it. Got weary of it. Next thing you
know, he said, bring me a calf. Bring me a sacrifice. And he
started slaying sacrifices. And then when Samuel walked up,
said, what in the world do you think you're doing? You have
disobeyed the commandment of the Lord. You're not supposed
to. That's not your job. That's not your office. You're
a king, not a priest. And because of that, God's going
to take the kingdom away from you and give it to somebody else.
Hold him flat-footed. And I tell you, beloved, It would
be awful. I do know this. God turned over
in Deuteronomy 25. You know that He can cause the
heavens to be brass. And when these heavens get to
be brass, it's pretty tough, ain't it? Has it ever happened
to you? You ever called on Him and it feels like the heavens
is brass? Your prayers don't get above your head, just above.
All the voice, you just hear your own voice. Well, that's
what happened to Saul. And that's why Paul said, let
us take heed. Let us take heed, lest there
be in us an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living
God. And I've often said this, there's a traitor in the castle.
There's a traitor in the castle. And you know who he is? He's
us. We got a traitor in here. And He'll be with us until we
leave this world. We got a traitor in here. Huh? And oh, now listen to his despairing
cry. What brought him? He had a trembling
heart. He was afraid. He had a fearful
heart and a silent heaven. What an awful thing to be. A
silent heaven. And then listen to his despairing
cry over here in 11. In verse 11. And then he went over to the witch of Endor. He went to this
familiar spirit, this woman who thought she could call up people,
speak to the dead. Then said the woman, who shall
I bring up unto thee? And he said, bring me up Samuel. Since he finds the door of heaven
shut and his heart scared to death and trembling, he said,
I know what I'll do. I'll go and I'll find somebody
that will bring up Samuel. I'll ask Samuel one last time.
He turned in desperation to witchcraft. And I do know this, when God
blesses, nobody can curse. And when God curses, nobody can
bless. If He opens a door, nobody can
shut it. When He shuts a door, nobody
can open it. And oh, I tell you what, he told
her, bring me up Samuel. He wanted one more time to speak
to God's prophet. The one who had power with God.
And I don't know what he thinks Samuel was going to tell him
other than what he had already told him. What's he going to
say to him? You think Samuel is going to
give him a good encouraging message? But no, he said, oh listen. And when the woman saw Samuel,
she cried with a loud voice. And then look what Samuel said
against him. Oh, he's in a mess. He goes from trembling heart
to seeking the Lord. Heaven's silent. God won't speak
to him. Heaven's shut up to him. So I
know what I'll do. I'll go to a witch. I'll go find
out what the witch has got to say. I'll go find out. You know, You know, they talk about good
witches and bad witches. There ain't no such thing as
a good witch. You know, and what they want
is to wear the vase. You know, there's one in white,
there's one in black. But that's not the way it is.
That's not the way it is. But oh my. But he wanted to talk
to Samuel. He wanted to speak to Samuel
one more time. Maybe Samuel will give me some help. Maybe Samuel
will give me some comfort. Maybe Samuel will tell me what
to do. And then look what he says there in verse 15. Samuel
said to Saul, Why have you disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul answered,
I am sore distressed. God's departed from me. And He
don't answer me anymore. And I have called thee, that
thou mayest make it known unto me what I'll do. What should
I do? What should I do? Since God wouldn't
answer him, so he goes to the witch. And you know what Saul, Samuel
said to him? Samuel told him in verse 16,
the Lord's departed from you and he's become your enemy. You
know, God is either your best friend or your worst enemy. No
middle ground. No middle ground. And I'll tell
you, he told him, he told him, down in verse 19, look what he
told him. Well, in verse 16, he said this, the Lord's departed
from you, become your enemy. And he said in verse 18, you
know why? Because you obeyed not the voice of the Lord. nor
execute his fierce wrath upon Amalek. Therefore the Lord hath
done this unto thee this day." Now he tells him exactly what's
going to happen to him. He tells him that he's going
to die and he's going to die tomorrow. Moreover, the Lord
will also deliver Israel with thee into the hands of the Philistines,
and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me." They're going
to be down and they're going to die, be dead like I am. The
Lord also shall deliver the host of Philistines, Israel, into
the hands of the Philistines. So he looked for comfort and
assurance, and all he got was a message of judgment. He looked
for comfort. He got a message of judgment.
He disobeyed God when he offered sacrifices. And because he tried
to, tired of waiting on Samuel to offer sacrifice, and then
he spared Amalekite. God said, you go down there and
I want every Amalekite, everything in Amalekite to die. I want everybody to die. I want
nothing to come out of that place. Well, he brought the king with
him, found the best sheep, found the best goats, found the best
cattle. He said, well, we'll take all these back to Israel.
Samuel come to him and said, what meaneth this bleeding of
the sheep? He said, the people made me. The people made me. Oh my. And that's why Samuel told him,
obedience, obedience is better than sacrifice. And that's what
our Lord meant. He said, I'll have mercy and
not sacrifice. I don't need your sacrifices.
I've already gave you a sacrifice. I gave you my son. Provided myself
a lamb. I provided myself a sacrifice.
I provided a sacrifice for you I Heard somebody say that Christ,
you know that that the Gospels for believing sinners. I'm gonna
tell you something Because Christ died for us why
we become believers I The gospel doesn't make us believers, God
makes us believers when He gives us life. But people say, well
Christ died for those who will believe. Well I tell you what,
we only believe because He did die. Right? But oh my, no wonder David
said like this, search me, oh God. Search me, search me. Oh God, and if there be any evil
way in me, save me, deliver me. Is that something that you do,
Lord search me? Please let me know. If there's
something in me that keeps me from knowing you, trusting you,
when I get to the end of the way, there's a bad spot in my
heart. If there's something in my soul,
if there's something in my life that will keep me from spending
eternity with you, let me know it now. Don't let me get on my deathbed
and all of a sudden find out that I have something bad wrong
or rotten spot in my heart and soul. So search me. That's the last
thing most people want, for God to search me. But that's whatever
a believer wants. Stick your finger in my heart.
Stick your hand in my heart. Take your eye and look inside
me. Get in my mind. Get in my heart. Get in my soul.
Get in my will. Get in my understanding. Get
in my affections. Get in my emotions. Get in my
will. Get in every part of me. If there's
any part that I'm holding back from you, save me from it, oh
Lord. And I tell you, Saul didn't do
that. And then look over here in chapter
31. Oh, I tell you, there was a way that he started in the
end of all the things about his life, what brought him down to
where he committed suicide. Look at his tragic, tragic end. You know it says there in verse
1, Now the Philistines fought against Israel. And the men of
Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount
Gilboa. And the Philistines followed
hard. They took out after Saul and was following hard upon his
sons. And listen to this, he had three
sons and the Philistines slew Jonathan. You remember that wonderful
covenant that Jonathan and David had? David mourned over Jonathan
you'll find it over here in and in 2nd Samuel chapter 2 he mourned
and 1st verse 1 chapter 1 excuse me. He mourned and mourned over
Saul Jonathan. Oh, he loved Jonathan and then
it says and and Abinadab and Malchus, Malchashua saw sons
Has three of his three sons died that day and the battle was so
against Saul And the archers, they saw him and they shot and
they hit him. And he was wounded, bad, bad
wounded. Saul said to his armors, draw
your sword and plunge it through me. Kill me. Lest they come and
abuse me and torture me and mock me. But his armor bearer said,
I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. Therefore
Saul took his own sword, fell down on it, died. His armor bearer Saul was dead,
fell upon his sword. Saul died and his three sons
and his armor bearer. In all the last battle, and this
is what happened, all the things that led him to this place, it
happened just exactly like Samuel told him it would. And it's going
to happen just exactly like the Lord tells us it's going to happen.
It's going to come out just exactly the way God says it's going to
come out. It come out this way for Saul. The last battle against
this man who rejected God and the Word of God was death. Judgment. Awful judgment. But there was
another king. Let me tell you about another
king. He died. He put over his cross. Pilate did. King of the Jews. They said, don't say he's king
of the Jews. Say he said. He said, what I've
said. I've said it. And there was another king. This
king died. But he did not die a tragic death. He did not die because he did
anything wrong. He did not die because he made
a mistake in his life. He died though he obeyed every
word of God throughout eternity. And when he come to earth, he
says, the words that I speak, they're not mine, but here's
the thing. I and my father are one. And I'll tell you this other
king, he died, but he did not die for himself. And now I'll
tell you something, I'll tell you something else. Every son
whom he died for, died with him the same day. Our Lord Jesus
went into battle. He went into battle. He went
into battle against sin. Did he win? He went into battle against God's
justice that said he will by no means clear the guilty. And he said the soul that sinneth
it shall die. And so he went into battle against
God's justice that demanded our death. Did he satisfy it? Did God's sword of justice pull
out and plunge into the heart of the Son of God? Arise, O sword,
and smite my fellow, the shepherd of the sheep. And I'll tell you
why. He went to battle against death. He went to battle against hell.
And I'll tell you what, did he win? Yes, he won. I'll tell you
what, when our Lord Jesus Christ said, it is finished, Everything
that was needed to be done for us was done that one day. I'm
telling you, as all of Saul's sons died with him that day,
all of Christ's sons were crucified with him. All of Christ's sons
was buried with Him. All of Christ's children was
raised up together with Him. And when He went to glory, sat
down in His seat on the right hand of God, the scripture says
we are seated together with Him. Saul, he died because of his
life. Christ died. because of our life. We were the ones in darkness,
He is the one who brought the light. We are the ones who are
dead, He is the one who brought the life. We were the ones without
God and He brought us nigh by His blessed blood. And I thank God, bless His holy
name, that what He did, so are we. What He did, we did. Our union is so close with Him,
so close with Him, that whom He did foreknow, who's them?
That's us. What did He do? He also did predestinate. And then whom he did predestinate,
what did he do then? He called him. What did he do
after he called him? He justified him. What did he
do after he justified him? He glorified him. What are we
going to say then to these things? If God be for us, who's going
to be against us? That king committed suicide.
Our king died a victor. No man took his life from it.
He laid it down. They said to Him, He saved others,
but He can't save Himself. He saved us, and He couldn't
save Himself unless He saved us with Him. Amen? Oh, my. Our Father, oh, our Father, the
precious, precious Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank You
for Your blessed mercy and grace given us in Christ before the
world ever began. Thank you that we've got a king,
a victorious king, a great and glorious king, a king that fought
all our battles and won them all, the captain
of our salvation, made perfect. And oh, Father, we're made perfect
in him, made perfect in him, made complete in him. And we
bless you and praise you for that. God bless these dear saints
as they go their way. Please strengthen them, encourage
them. And again, we pray for Daryl, Bill, Dortha, Bruce and
Joe, Bruce and Sandy, for Pam, Rick and Helen. And Lord, if
there's anybody we forgot, we ask you forgive us. But Lord,
we do pray for them. Our hearts go out and our prayers
go unto Thee for them. We look to You for all things.
We trust You for everything. And Lord, it's a wonderful, blessed
thing to know that You know us. It's Your knowledge of us that
gives us assurance. We bless You and praise You in
Christ's name. Amen. You know, I know we got to know God. But
I tell you what, I get more assurance out of Him knowing me than me
knowing Him. There's something I was looking
at the other day. Let's see if this is it. Yeah, 267. 267. Let's turn to
this and just four little verses and we'll sing this and you'll
be at liberty to go. That's to my majestic sweetness,
I believe. All things work out for good,
we know, such is God's great design. He orders all our steps
below, for purpose is divine, for purpose is divine. This is the faith that keeps
me still No matter what the test And lets me glory in His will
For well I know to spend For well I know to spend So now the
future holds no fear God was the work he done And mortals
are immortal here Until their work is done Until their work
is done Someday I'll see you Sunday, God willing.