In verse 35 of chapter 15, it
says, Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his
death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, mourned for him, grieved
for him. And the Lord repented that he
had made Saul king over Israel. That means that God uses language
for us to understand. God does not change His mind.
God doesn't change his mind. What Saul did didn't surprise
God whatsoever. He uses language to tell us that
this is a way... He used language like we would.
I'm sorry that I've done this. This is something that... I'm sorry that it just happened
this way. That he was such a faker. And God's using language for
us. And the Lord said unto Samuel,
How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected
him from reigning over Israel? And this is my subject tonight.
How long will you mourn? How long will you grieve? How
long will you grieve? God rejected Saul. Because Saul
rejected God's Word. Look over here in verse 23 of
chapter 15. And about down in the bottom
of the verse. God rejected Saul because Saul rejected God. He never obeyed God. He never
once obeyed God. Never once did what God told
him to do. And he feared the people. But
it says down at the bottom, Because thou hast rejected the Word of
the Lord, he hath also rejected thee. from being king and so
that's what happened he said you know you rejected me and
up in verse 11 look what it says here in chapter 15 it repeats me that I have set
up Saul to be king for he has turned back from following me
and hath not performed my contention see he turned back from following
me he went a different direction than I was going I was going
one direction and Saul turned around and went the opposite
direction. That's what God said. And that's what happens when
you turn your back on God. You turn your back on his word.
You turn your back on his gospel. Turn your back on his son. And
beloved, there's no hope for you. God done rejected you. Now look what he says. And he
goes on to say this. And it grieved Samuel. And he
cried unto the Lord all night. so three different times it talks
about Samuel grieving over Saul and I want you to look in verse
27 with me and look what happens here before I get into my message
by way of introduction and as Samuel turned about to go away
he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle got on the skirt of
his gown is what he's talking about his robe that he had on
and he ripped it he ripped it 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 also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he
is not a man that he should repent using language to suit us so
he didn't see Samuel again not as Saul's death but as Samuel's
death Samuel was getting ready to die. Samuel died before Saul
did. But he didn't see him again until
his death. And then he asked him, how long
will you mourn over Saul? How long will you grieve over
Saul? He said, I've got somebody else.
I've got a man after my own heart that I've chosen. So get up and
quit your mourning, quit your grieving, and I've got somebody
else and you don't know what you have. And what, you know,
the Word of the Lord here is teaching us something in this
thing of grieving. And that's what I want to talk
about, grieving. The Word teaches us some things as God's Word
always does. It always teaches us something. You know, the Word of God was
written for our admonition, our correction, our instruction.
And the things that were written aforetime were written for our
learning. I learned that we through patience and comforts of the
scriptures might have hope. But the Word of God teaches us
some things as God's Word always does. And grief, and that's why,
you know, Saul, God asked him three different times. He said
he grieved and he mourned over Saul. And there's always grief
and sorrow that often comes into our lives. Now we all experience
joy. I think I'm one of the most joyful
persons you'll ever meet. I'm almost up almost all the
time. And if I'm not, God's gonna be one knows it. I just, you
know, God made me that way and I'm very thankful for it. We
experience joy, we experience comfort, and then we have great
ease. And it's all because of God's
mercy and God's grace. And none of us deserve any of
those things in this world that's so condemned in us in our old
rotten flesh. But there's sometimes that grief
and sorrow and trials come into our lives. And as God's people,
we find comfort. We have comfort in the midst
of our trials from our burdens, from our griefs, from our sorrows. Paul said in Romans 8.28, for
we know We know. I said Sunday morning,
Job said, I know. Paul said, we know whom we have
believed. I know whom I have believed.
And Paul said here, said we know. We know this because we've experienced
this. That all things. Now what does
it mean when it says all things? Do you reckon it means 99% of
the things and 1% left to chance or misfortune or luck or the
cards we have to deal with? No, when he says all things,
I'm telling you everything. that happens in this world for
His people. And that's the distinction. For
we know that all things work, work. Who's doing the work? God's
doing the work. Who's doing the all things? God's
doing the all things. God does the work. God does the
work in the heart. God does the work in the soul.
God does the work in the mind. God does the work bringing us
down and lifting us back up. For we know that all things work. They're working. God wrapped
this man, it's working. What's he doing? He's on his
throne. He ain't moving a muscle, but he's working. Working all things to our good. Ain't that what it says? To them that love God, that's
the kicker. Saul didn't love God, but Samuel
grieved over it. To them that love God, and here
is how it comes about to love God, and why all things work
together. To them that are called according
to His purpose. You know why you love Him? According
to His purpose. You know why all things work
together? According to His purpose. You know why that we find we
know these things? Because God works according to
purpose. And the main reason that we have grief in this world
is because of loss. Loss. There's always some kind
of a loss in our life. And this is something that, you
know, when you're a young person, when you're young and you're
in your teens and your twenties and your thirties, this is hard
for you to get. But we learn as we live for a
while that everything in this life is temporary and failing. Everything in this life is temporary
and failing. Our homes, they're failing. We
got to always be working on them. These bodies are failing. These
minds are failing. And everything that you can touch,
if you can taste it, if you can handle it, if you can live in
it, it's temporary. Every relationship in this building
today is temporary. You're temporary, your children,
your husband, your wife, your grandchildren, your mama and
your daddy. Everything is temporary. Every
relationship is temporary. Huh? Oh, and I tell you what,
we enjoy and find comfort because all of these things will ultimately
come to an end. They'll stop one of these days.
And you know what our Lord described the material possessions as in
this life? You look at it in your own time.
In Matthew 6.19, our Lord said, He said, lay up treasure in heaven
for this treasure on earth. He said, put it up there where
neither rust can get to it. Everything, it'll rust. Neither
moth can corrupt it. And a thief can't break through
and steal. So all the material possessions
we have, it rusts, moths will eat it up, or a thief will break
in and steal it. He said, that's what material
possessions are. That's what treasure is here
about to. That's what our Lord said. And all my, our loved ones
are often lost through death, through death. I, we got a book
back there and it's laying right behind my desk on the bottom
shelf. When somebody gets baptized, I put it in there. When somebody
passes, I put it in there. And I write it down. I write
the date, who took care of the services, and how it went. And
you know, when I look in there, I got the date. I got the person. I got where the service was taken
care of. And every believer, I always
say, they went to be with their Lord or else they passed into
life. Now for us, it's very grievous. It's grievous for you to lose
your mommy. It's grievous for you to lose Peggy. It was hard. It's hard. We lose our loved
ones through death. But it's a loss. And the flesh
is all that knows that person. Even though we know they're going
to be with us in the flesh, it still does. And that's why, you
know, and sin, here's the thing about it. Sin aggravates our
losses. It aggravates it. It makes it
seem to be worse sometimes than it really is, and it's bad enough
as it is. Friends are lost. Marriage has
come to an end. Health fails. People have financial
losses. All those are griefs, all those
are troubles, all those are sorrows. And there's not a man on this
earth, not a man on this earth that will not experience grief
and hasn't experienced grief if he's been here long. And sin
so aggravates our losses. And we're going to grieve about
it, there's no doubt about it. We can't help ourselves. We can't
help ourselves. But I do know this, that we as
believers, as God's people, I really earnestly believe that we react
differently than other people do. We respond so differently
to grief and troubles and trials and losses. I think we respond,
some grief is mild, it's not catastrophic, it's not You know,
we'll hear about somebody and we'll weep a while. And then
some comes, some grief. And that's why I said, how long
will you grieve over Saul? I rejected him. I rejected him. And sometimes grief comes on
us like this great, great weight. Like this awful weight. Like
this awful, gray, dark cloud. And it feels like it's going
to crush us down till we'll never get up again. But we always get up. Why do
we get up? God raises us up. And I do know
this is why we react differently. We don't want to dishonor our
Father. We don't want to dishonor our
Lord Jesus Christ. In our grief, in our sorrow,
and in our trials, we don't want to dishonor Him. We don't. And
let's always remember this. Always remember this. God is
sovereign over every trial that happens to us in this world.
There is absolutely nothing that surprises God. We get surprised,
but God's not. Does this help you when you understand
that God is sovereign? That water won't shiver unless
I hit it. But still yet God made it the
nature that it do that. But He's sovereign over every
trial. And God has an eternal purpose.
An eternal purpose. Did you hear what I said? An
eternal purpose. We're creatures of time, but God's eternal. And
He is carrying out in this world right now His eternal covenant
of grace, His covenant of redemption, His purpose on this earth for
every soul, especially His elect. Oh, He's got a purpose on this
earth. And He's carrying it out. He's carrying it out. I tell you, I'm so thankful that
I understand that God does things on purpose. As any of us, most of the things
that you do, you do on purpose, don't you? You'll get up and
go to work tomorrow, do whatever you do on purpose. You'll get
out of bed in the morning on purpose. If you get up and go do what
you're going to do, it won't cause your purpose to do it.
So God purposed before the world ever began and He set His affections
and His covenant of grace and His covenant of redemption on
His blessed people. And He said, this is what I'm
going to do for them. This is how I'm going to treat
them. You know, if I made them fat and lazy and they're full
of bread, they'd be proud and idle. So I've got to every once
in a while, I got to trim them up. I've got to bring them down.
I've got to humble them. I've got to bring them and keep
them always trusting me. And I'm going to keep them in
a condition where they won't have no other choice than to
look to me all the time. And I'm grateful He does that.
You know how quick we'd forget Him if He let us? If He never put His hand on us?
You know how quick we'd forget Him? Oh, bless His name. He's not going to let us. Old
Bruce Crabtree says it all the time. And old Scott Hughes said,
make your head coarse in the dust. And he said, God will not
let us get up very long. Because there we would not believe
Him. We would not trust Him. And we
would not look to Him. Unless He kept us doing it. And that's a wonderful thing
that God said. Do what you got to do to me Lord. As long as
you keep me cleaving and believing. Just whatever you do, don't let
me, my flesh, don't let my will, don't let my heart, don't let
my affection, don't let nothing in me ever be against you. Do what you gotta do. I believe
that with all my heart, don't you? Nations rise, nations fall, people
are born and people die. And time goes on and on and on
and on. And everything is ordained of
God. It's by His design. And it's
always, always could. And you and I, we may not understand
the reason why God does what He does in our lives. And I'll tell you something.
We don't need to. We don't need to. We don't need
to know what He's doing, do we? But we do know this. That is
good. We do know it's right. And we
do know it's from a blessed, glorious God who loved us and
gave himself for us. Oh, it's good and it's right. So Samuel was grieved in his
heart over what happened with Saul. And his grief caused him
to be distressed and to be angry towards God. That word distressed
or mourned there in chapter verse 11 of chapter 15. That word mourned
there, grieved there means he was distressed. He was angry.
He was angry. He was angry about it. You think God was surprised at
Saul's actions? At what Saul did? Rejected him? Samuel grieved over Saul. And
you know what God said to him? He said, I rejected him. This
is my purpose to do it. You mean you don't like what
I did, Samuel? You don't like my will? I ordained
this. I set him up and I took him right
back down. I ordained this. This is my will. I rejected him. You upset with my will? You upset
with my purpose? Why are you doing this? I rejected
him, Samuel. And oh my, and I'll tell you,
and I know this also from experience. There's a time for grief and
a time for it to come to an end. And there will be a time it'll
come to an end. And one reason, and I want you
to look over with me, and I say it's 66 in verse 13. One reason is, is like David
said, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil. Why David? Because thou art with
me. Thou art with me. And thy rod
and thy staff comfort me. Huh? Oh my. And one reason it's going to
come to an end is because we trust God's purposes. God's purpose. Look what he said here in verse
13 of Isaiah 66. As one whom his mother comforts. Any of you mothers ever comforted
your children? Any of your mothers ever comforted
you even when you got older? Did your mothers when they got
older tell you how much they loved you and how much they cared
for you? and comforts you, say thanks
to you, encouraging thanks to you. He said, as a mother, as
one whom his mother comforts, listen to this, so will I comfort
you. Oh, next time you hold a little
baby and you're comforting that little baby, as you comfort that
little old baby, remember this, that's what God said He's going
to do for you. That's just, oh my. And it's right and good for us
to weep at the death of a loved one. That's right. It'd be a
very hard, be a very callous person that wouldn't do that.
Now, Ecclesiastes is wrapped before the book of Proverbs.
And I want you to look in Ecclesiastes 3. I've used this so many times,
but let's look at it. There's a time for grief and
a time for it to come to an end. And the reason is we trust God's
purpose. We trust God's providence. And
it's right, there's nothing wrong for us to weep at the death of
somebody we love. Someone we love. But look what
he said here now. In chapter 3 in verse 1. To everything
there is a season. there's a time for things to
happen there's a season we have four seasons here but God says
there's a season for everything that means just a space of time
and a time to every purpose under the heaven there's a time for
every purpose that God said under this heaven and here's some times
that he said there's a time a purpose for a person to be born and there's
a time and a purpose for a person to die There's a time and a purpose
to plant. And there's a time and a purpose
to go out and get what you planted and pluck it up. And there's
a time and a purpose to kill. And a time and a purpose to heal. There's a time and a purpose
to break down. And a time and a purpose to build
up. And all listen. And there's a
time and a purpose to weep. And then there's a time and a
purpose to laugh. A time and a purpose to mourn. And a time to dance. And I've said this, laugh all
you possibly can in this world. And laugh all you can. Just laugh
all you can. Because there's going to be enough
time for you to grieve and for you to weep and for you to hurt.
So laugh when you can. It's right for us to weep over
the death of a loved one. To lose a child is incomprehensible
to me. But it has to be one of life's
greatest trials. It has to be. I can't imagine. And people's done it and went
through it. To lose a child is one of life's greatest trials.
To lose a spouse, a husband or a wife, that's great, great sorrow. And many have experienced this
and many more will. But grief, grief shouldn't swallow
us up. I hope I'm saying this right.
Grief shouldn't swallow us up. The scripture says that when
Sarah died, she was 120 years old, 107 years old when she died.
127 when she died. And Abraham got
down and wept and mourned and wept and mourned over Sarah.
And then he got up and he said, it's time to put this away. It's time. And he got up and he stood up. It's like David when he mourned
and mourned and mourned and mourned and grieved over that child.
But just the minute that child was gone and he found out, he
got up and he said, there's nothing I can do now. But I'll tell you
what I can do. I can go where they is. I can do that. And so we might
grieve. But here's the difference between
us and the world. We have an eternal hope. We have an eternal hope. And
you know what? We sing that song, keep your
eyes upon Jesus. We keep our eyes focused on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Shirley's told me two or three
times when I'm driving, she said, you need blinders on you when
you're driving. If I look this way, I'm going to go this way.
If I look this way, cars going to go that way. She said, you
need blinders. And that's what we need. We need
our eyes stayed focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep them
on Him. Keep them on him, huh? And all
beloved, and let me say a couple things about grief and wind this
up. That's why I said, Samuel, how
long will you grieve? How long will you grieve? There's
stages of grief, especially when you're talking about death, the
grief of death. First of all, there's the shock
of death. Death is a shock. especially if it happens like
that if it's real sudden it's a shock but what a blessing it
is to have time to say goodbye to somebody spend some time with
them before they get to go be able to take care of them before
they go but boy when it's sudden that's a shock that's a shock
and then when you actually go and see them that's a shock that
this is really this has really happened And it's like Joseph
when his father Jacob died. You know, he was down in Egypt
for years before his father come down there. And when his father,
the scripture says that he curled his feet up in his bed and he
gave up the ghost. And Joseph fell on his face and
wept and wept and wept and wept and wept on his father's, got
on the bed with him and wept over him and wept over him and
kissed him. It said, wept and kissed him and kissed him. But then when they took him and
buried him, he said he rose up and went back to Egypt. Now do you think he still didn't
grieve over his daddy? Of course he did. Do you think
Abraham didn't still miss Sarah? Of course he did. But there's
a time that we got to start living and we do return to life. It
doesn't mean the pain. It doesn't mean the loss. It
doesn't mean the burdens. It doesn't mean that these things
go away. That we forget. No. But they don't control us. There's a time. As believers,
we have to get up. The loss and the burden of it,
it comes at times more than others. But as believers, We remember
our reason for living. And you know what our reason
for living is? Is to bring glory to our Father, which is in heaven. And remember, our Lord Jesus
Christ is a faithful, faithful, faithful brother. And a friend
that sticks closer than a brother. And I tell you what, He'll take
care of us in this life. And so I tell you what, as the
old hymn writer said, take your burden to the Lord and leave
it there. Take it to the Lord and leave
it there. When them moments come, when you remember, take it to
the Lord. Who else we gonna take it to? Who else we gonna take it to? Oh God, God's able ain't
He? He has, he's kept us all, all
these years, met all of our needs. And all of us had losses. And
we're going to have some more. We're going to go through some
more. Going to go through some more. All of us are getting older.
And you know what that means? It means we're getting older. But I love every one of you.
And my heart's for you, and I know yours is for me. And we've wept
together, and we've laughed together, and we've rejoiced together.
And God gonna help us do that until this thing's over for all
of us. Amen. Our Father, in the precious,
holy, blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your
abundant mercy and grace given us in Christ before the world
ever began. Lord, you're so patient and kind
and gracious to us. And Lord, you've met all of our
needs all these years. Help us not to ever dishonor
you and be angry with you over anything that you do in this
world, in our lives. And help us to take our lives
and live them to your glory. And not overgrieve over anything
or anyone. And we ask these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. And amen. Let's do number 266
in the hymn book. Let's stand together and sing
this one. 266. And then you'll be at liberty
to go. 266. And this is what it's going to
be. Faith, faith, each earthly joy,
Jesus is born. Jesus is mine. Tim, not my sword. Thanks of clay, born but for
one brief day. Passed from my heart away, Jesus
is mine. Jesus is mine. Bury my soul as dry. Jesus is mine. has satisfied. Jesus is mine. Farewell mortality. Jesus is mine. Welcome eternity. Amen. Cody Henson will be here
Sunday morning to