The funeral for Mary Bell yesterday
was one of the I guess it's the best funeral
I've ever been to, if you can call a funeral a good funeral.
And yet it was so sad. She was such a special, special
lady. She was an Israelite indeed in
whom is no guile. What you saw is what you get.
I mean, she was just real. And I think of Donnie, remember
him. Tonight's going to be his first
night by himself on that farm. And just remember him. He's had
people with him all this time. I, uh, I got so many memories
of Mary. She was such a special lady,
but, um, first Samuel chapter 14 glasses. Let's read, um, versus 30. 2 and 33 right now,
but we're going to look down to the end of the chapter. But
in verse 32, and the people flew upon the spoil and took sheep
and oxen and calves and slew them on the ground. And the people
did eat them with the blood. Now that was forbidden in the
Levitical law. The food, the animals they would slay, they
would empty the blood out of them. And there's great typical
significance in that. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. And we live off his death. And symbolically, when the blood
was still in, it was wrong. The blood is to be shed and poured
out, and they ate the flesh with the blood in it. That was what
their transgression was. Then they told Saul, saying,
Behold, the people sin against the Lord, in that they eat with
the blood. And he said, You have transgressed.
Roll a great stone unto me. this day. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
with thanksgiving. We thank you for the shed blood
of our blessed son, what he accomplished by the shedding of his blood.
The complete forgiveness of sins, the complete justification of
your people. And Lord, we from the depths
of our hearts give thanks that salvation is all by grace. And
Lord, we're so pleased and satisfied to be saved by thy grace. For Lord, we know that if it
were of works, there would be no hope for us. And we give thanks. We pray for your blessing upon
the service this morning. Lord, speak to our hearts in
power from your word. Forgive us of our many sins and
be with all your people wherever they meet together. And Lord,
we would especially remember Donnie Bell and his family at
this time. ask that you would be near unto
them by your grace, as we know you will. Lord, those of our
number that are sick and sorrowing, we ask that you would be with
them, and we ask for grace to love you more and love one another
more. Speak in power to our hearts now, for Christ's sake, in his
name we pray, amen. Now we know that God had already
rejected Saul, and he was still using him in some respects for
the accomplishment of his purposes, but Saul had proven himself.
You may remember this from about a couple of weeks ago in chapter
13. Saul took credit where credit
was not due. Now that exposes so much of his
character. Saul took credit where credit
was not due and He didn't see the wickedness of himself offering
a sacrifice without a priest. And this is why God said he rejected
him. He went ahead and offered his own sacrifice without a priest,
thinking God could accept it without a priest. And he proved
his high thoughts of himself to think that God could accept
something he offered up. And he proved his low thoughts
of God in thinking that God could accept this. He proved a high
view of himself and a low view of God. Don't you know that you
need the Lord Jesus Christ as your priest to represent you
before God? You know the only way you can
be accepted is as He represents you. And Saul saw no need of
that. And Saul in that 13th chapter
refused to take responsibility for his own sin. and more of
his character is exposed in this 14th chapter. Now, in verse 24,
you'll remember this man-made rule he made in chapter 14. And the men of Israel were distressed
that day. This is what we considered last week. For Saul had adjured
the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food
until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none
of the people tasted any of this food. And so the people were
hungry. They were hungry. And they went
out to take the spoils from this supernatural victory that had
been accomplished by Jonathan. We've been looking at that for
several weeks, but they were hungry. And so they went ahead
and killed animals and ate these animals with the blood still
in them. This was sin. This was wrong.
And remember, the typical reason is because We live off his death,
and the blood still being in represented it still being alive,
although it was dead. But the point is, we live, and
right now, I'm living off his death. Now, he's alive now, I
realize that, but I'm living off his death. The only reason
I'm gonna be saved is because he died. That's it. That's all
my salvation is him. And so the people ate of this
food. They shouldn't have done it,
but it was through Saul's man-made rule that caused them to do this.
Let's pick up in verse 33. Then they told Saul, saying,
Behold, the people sin against the Lord and that they eat with
the blood. And he said, You have transgressed.
Roll a stone into me this day. And Saul said, disperse yourselves
among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither every man
his ox and every man his sheep, and slay them, and eat them,
and sin not against the Lord, and eat him with the blood. And
all the people brought every man his ox with him that night,
and slew them. And Saul built an altar unto
the Lord, and the same was the first altar that he built unto
the Lord." Now, in those verses, there's two things I see about
Saul. He's such a scary study because,
let me tell you why he's scary, because I see so much of myself
in him. Not because I see this is how other people are, but
because I see myself in this man. Two things I see about Saul
is he is quick to see other people's sins. The people have sinned. The people have sinned. He's
quick to see other people's sins and he failed to see his own. Jonathan had said what he had
done had troubled Israel. He's quick to see other people's
sins, and he failed to see his own. And here's the second thing
I see about him in these verses. He was very selective as to which
commandments he would uphold. Now, he saw no problem in him
offering up a sacrifice without a priest. He could do that. But
oh, he's so opposed to the people eating the food that still had
blood in it and he would condemn them for it. Now, what I see
in that is Saul, I guess he thought he kept the one commandment so
he's okay with it and he would enforce it on the people and
he didn't see any problem with him offering up a sacrifice without
a priest. 35, and Saul built an altar unto
the Lord. The same was the first altar that he built unto the
Lord. And Saul said, let us go down after the Philistines by
night, this is verse 36, and spoil them into the morning light.
And let us not leave a man of them. And they said, do whatsoever
seemeth good unto thee. Then said the priest, let us
draw hither unto God. And Saul asked counsel of God,
shall I go down after the Philistines? Wilt thou deliver them into the
hand of Israel? But he answered him not that day. And Saul said,
draw ye near hither, all the chief of the people, and know
and see wherein this sin hath been this day. Who has sinned? As soon as the phone quits ringing,
I'll quit talking. That's a good way to have all
your thoughts just fall right out of your brain. That happens
every time. So let me try to regather my
thoughts. Saul, remember, Jonathan had
won this victory. They were going to get the spoils
of it now. And Saul says, let's ask the Lord whether we're to
go and get these spoils. And the Lord did not answer him. And Saul says, whose fault is
this? Where is the sin that's causing
the Lord not to answer us? Somebody sinned. Somebody sinned. That's why the Lord's not answering
us. We need to find out who's done this horrible thing. Verse
38, And Saul said, Draw ye near hither, all the chief of the
people, and know and see where in this sin hath been this day.
For as the Lord liveth which saveth Israel, though it be in
Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. Now, what Saul did not see
was that he was the problem. The sin was in him. And he said,
even if it's in Jonathan, he never dreamed it was in him.
He left himself out of the equation altogether. He said, if this
sin is even in Jonathan, my son, the person that's most important
to me, we're gonna kill him. Even if it's in Jonathan, my
son, where is the one who is guilty? Now, I think that's so
interesting. He didn't even suspect himself
and yet he was the problem. Now, that makes me ask myself,
how much of that is in me? This is such hypocrisy on his
part. He doesn't even suspect that
he's the problem. He really doesn't. He's blind
to it. He's blind to his own sin. He says, why, if it's in
Jonathan, my son, I'll put him to death. And didn't see that
he was the problem. He completely overlooked himself.
I think it's almost humorous. Turn with me for a moment to
Psalm 19, and I wish I would always be quick to look at myself
and not at somebody else. Look in Psalm 119. David said in verse 12, who can understand his errors? Tell him about his own. Can you
understand your own sin? Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults,
faults I don't even know about, sins I don't even know about,
that I'm completely blind to about myself. Oh, would to God
that you and I would be making this prayer our prayer right
now. He said in verse 13, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous
sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. I know this. I will sin presumptuously if
he doesn't keep me from it. And so I'm asking Lord, keep
me from this. I'm so helpless. I'm so needy
of your grace. I'm so blind to myself. Lord,
keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion
over me that I shall be upright and I shall be innocent from
the great transgression. Turn to Psalm 139. Verse 23, Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me, know my thoughts, and see if
there be any wicked way in me, in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting. And back to our text. For as the Lord liveth which
saveth Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely
die. But there was not a man among
all the people that answered him. Verse 40, Then said he unto
all Israel, Be ye on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will
be on the other side. And the people said unto Saul,
Do what seemeth good unto thee. Therefore Saul said unto the
Lord God of Israel, Give a perfect lot. And Saul and Jonathan were
taken, but the people escaped. So obviously the sin was in either
Jonathan or Saul or the people that caused this problem. And
Saul said, cast lots between me and Jonathan, my son. And
Jonathan was taken. Now, did the Lord ever intend
on Jonathan to be put to death? No. This was all Saul's doing
from Saul's man-made rule. So verse 43, then Saul said to
Jonathan, tell me what you've done. And Jonathan told him,
and said, I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod
that was in my hand, and lo, I must die. You remember that
from last week, how he ate the honey. And because of Saul's
man-made rule, it was forbidden to do it. But he says, OK, I'm
going to go ahead and die. I must die. And look what Saul
says, verse 44. And Saul answered. God do so
and more also, thou shalt surely die, Jonathan. He was going to
put his own son to death for this man-made rule that he had
made. That gives us some idea and some
look into his character. He was going to put him to death.
And the people said unto Saul, Shalt Jonathan die, who hath
wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid, as the
Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to
the ground, for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people
rescued Jonathan that day that he died not. Now, I have fallen
in love with this 14th chapter of 1 Samuel. Jonathan is one
of my new heroes. I don't know, I never thought
that much about him before this 14th chapter, but he, You remember
how he was willing to take on the entire Philistine army. And remember what he said in
verse 6, there's no restraint to the Lord, with the Lord to
save by many a few. And he and his armor bearer went
up against 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen. Soldiers as the sand of the sea.
And we so much admire his faith. He really believed that God be
for us who can be against us. And he was willing to take on
this whole army knowing that no problem with the Lord. He
could win if the Lord's on his side. We admire his faith and
his courage and so on. But more than anything else,
Jonathan is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jonathan won the
victory for Israel. This one man, he won the victory
for Israel. My victory is what the Lord won
for me. It's not what I've done. It's
what the Lord has won for me. Now I want to think for a few
moments about the greatness of his salvation. Notice how they
said this in verse 44, and the people saith unto Saul, saith,
Jonathan died, who hath wrought, he worked, this great salvation
in Israel. Now, I wish I could talk about this
the way it ought to be spoken of, but when we speak of the
greatness of the salvation that he wrought and that he worked,
first we've got to talk about the greatness of his person.
It's great because of who did it. He's the son of God. He's infinitely great in his
person. He's the creator of the universe.
He's God. He's the mighty God. He's the
wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the Prince of Peace. Anything
he does is great. So when we talk about the greatness
of his salvation, the first part of the greatness of it is who
did it. This is the Son of God. And the greatness of his salvation
is seen in who he did it for. Who did he do it for? Sinners. People who were absolutely
without help and without hope in and of themselves. People
who could not save themselves. People who were sinners. People
who deserved to be damned. People who were evil. People
who were wicked. That's who he came to save. He
didn't come to save good people. He didn't come to save righteous
people. Aren't you glad for that? Is that something that makes
you happy? That he didn't come to save the righteous, but he
came to save sinners, evil people, people who deserve to be damned
forever. That's great. Great to me. I think of the greatness of what
he did. For these sinners, he stood as
their surety before time began and took upon himself all the
responsibility of their salvation." Now, is that great? That Jesus
Christ stood for you before time began and said everything to
his Father. He said, everything you acquired
then, you look to me for. I'm going to be their surety.
I love the way he's called the surety of a better testament
in the scriptures. He stood as my surety. He took
responsibility for me. And there isn't anything that
makes me happier than to know that when He became my surety,
and I know He's always been my surety, we're speaking in terms
of time because we're flesh, we're human, we live in time,
it's impossible for us to understand eternity, but He's always been
my surety. And God has always looked to
Him for what He requires of me. The greatness of His salvation,
He, the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, whom the universe
cannot contain, His immensity, His infinite greatness, He became
flesh. Is that great? God became flesh. The infinite became an infant.
He became a seed in a woman's belly, and he went through that
period of gestation, or nine months, I don't even know if
I'm saying the word right, but he was in a womb for nine months.
He's an infant, he's a baby, he's a toddler, he grows up as
a teenage boy. This is God we're talking about.
In the flesh, he kept God's law perfectly. He never sinned as
a man. Now, is that great? He kept God's
law perfectly. Oh, the greatness of his salvation.
And here's what's great. He did it for somebody. You see,
when he kept God's law perfectly, he did it as my surety, as the
surety of all of his people. If he would have just kept the
law for himself and gone back up to heaven, what good would
that have done me or you? Absolutely none, but I love the
way he said to John the Baptist, thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. When he fulfilled all righteousness,
every single one of God's elect fulfilled all righteousness.
Now isn't that great? I hope we believe this. He is
my righteousness before God. That's great. That's great. What
about his death? This one who never sinned. was nailed to a cross and died
a death that you and I can't even enter into. Why was he nailed
to a cross? There's only one reason for death,
and that's sin, my sin. The sins that hover over my head
all the time, the sins that I've committed, the sins I've not
yet committed, they all became his sins. Is that great? Mystery surrounds all this. I
mean, it's glorious, it's incomprehensible, but it's what the Bible teaches.
My sin actually became His sin so that He became guilty of it.
Oh, how great that he, my sin's been punished. He has made a
way for God to be just and justify somebody like me. Now that's
great. We talk about the greatness of his salvation. When he was
raised from the dead, how great was that? It's because God accepted
what he did. Is this great? I don't have any
guilt. I don't have any sin. I'm justified. And one of these
days, now this is so great, one of these days, I'm going to be
perfectly conformed to His image. When we were talking about Mary
Bell in that funeral, at the gravesite, I was reading some
scriptures, and read that scripture in 1 John 3, verse 2, where it
says, it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Can anybody
even fathom what it would be like to be without sin? It doth
not yet appear what we shall be. Well, Mary Bell is what we
shall be. She's without sin. And you want
to talk about great. We talk about the greatness of
his salvation. Every believer is going to be
perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. No guilt, no sin.
Won't you remember what it's like to be a sinner? How glorious. What a great salvation he wrought. And how shall we escape if we
neglect? So great a salvation. Oh, Saul, you're not putting
him to death. You know, Saul was just totally
blind to the fact that he was the problem. He was going to
put Jonathan to death when Jonathan brought this great salvation.
He was blind to himself. They say regarding Jonathan,
look what it says. There shall not one, verse 45,
there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground for he
hath wrought with God. I love that statement. He hath
wrought with God. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Daniel said, they that know their God shall be
strong and do exploits. But here's what I was thinking
when I thought of he hath wrought with God. If somebody really
believes that the sin questions have been taken care of, they're
without sin. They're God's elect. They're
God's child. They're willing to take on the
world. He hath wrought with God. Paul said, I can do all things
through Christ, which strengthens me. He hath wrought with God. Now, Christ is God, and he wrought
with God, and he accomplished our salvation, but look at Jonathan
here. I mean, what a statement. He
hath wrought with God. I love that. Now, verse 46, so
they wouldn't let Saul slay Jonathan. Then Saul went up from following
the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place. Let's
read through the end of the chapter. And he gathered and host and
smoked the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of all the hands of
them that spoiled them. Now the sons of Saul were, he names all
his kids, sons and daughters, I can't pronounce all the names
so I'm not going to read them, you can figure it out on your own,
verse 51. And Kish was the father of Saul and Ner the father of
Abner was the son of Abil. And there was sore war against
the Philistines all the days of Saul and when Saul saw any
strong man or any valiant man he took him unto him, just like
Lord said he would. He's going to take your best
people and make them his servants and put them in his army. But
here's the point. God had already rejected Saul
and sought him out a man after his own heart, David. We all
read about that in the 13th chapter. Yet Saul had all this success.
Now we read where he becomes a very powerful man. At this
time, as a matter of fact, he starts gathering up hundreds
of thousands of people in his army. You can read about that
in chapter 15, and God renews his rejection of him. But for
some time, Saul has this great success. The Lord used him. The Lord used him. No question
about this. And this serves as a warning
The Lord uses unbelievers and even gives them success in the
accomplishment of his purpose. They may appear to have God's
blessing. Saul seemed to be God's man at
this time as he has used so much in these mighty victories, yet
he had already been rejected. Now here's the point I want to
make. I don't want to be a Saul quick to see other sins and plumb
blind to my own. That was Saul. He was quick to
expose, quick to see other people's sins, and completely blind to
his own. He had a high position, king
of Israel, great success, but no grace. No grace. You know, just outward appearance
of everything going well, that means nothing. It means nothing. Saul is a proof of that. And
we're gonna kind of get into the final chapter of Saul. We'll
read about him pursuing David and so on, but David comes up
in chapter six, but the final straw is in chapter 15, when
he does not kill the Amalekites. And if you can, look at that
this week and we'll consider that next time. Okay. Lissy.