The three places in our Lord's
last hours here upon the earth were Gethsemane, the garden in
which he sweat great drops of blood, Gabbatha, the judgment
hall in which he was beaten and spit upon, and Golgotha, where
the cross of Calvary was, upon which he died to redeem his people. All three of those places begin
with the letter G. Gethsemane, Gabbatha, and Golgotha. Let's start in our Bibles this
evening again to 1 Samuel, and tonight, chapter 31. First Samuel chapter 31. 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 upon Saul and upon his sons. And the Philistines slew Jonathan
and Abinadab and Malachi. 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 it. 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 when the men of Israel that
were on the other side of the valley and they that were on
the other side 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
roundabout to publish it in the house of their idols and among
the people. And they put his armor in the
house of Ashtoreth and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. 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. I'm entitling the message tonight,
the last chapter, the last chapter. We've come to the last chapter
in the first book of Samuel and we've also come to the last chapter
in the life of King Saul. Robert Hawker began his comments
on this chapter with these words, this is a melancholy chapter
which relates to us the sequel of Saul's history, the sad termination
of a sinful life. Tonight, I'll divide my message
into three parts. First, I want us to see a contrast. I want us to see a contrast in
the end of the two main characters in this book. As I went over
this chapter several times, I thought, what if we were in a literature
class in college or in some school and we were assigned to read
this book of 1 Samuel, we were required to read it and then
to name the two main characters in the book. Well, surely the
two main characters would be Samuel and Saul. The book begins with the events
about the birth of Samuel, and that is such a beautiful history.
When we read about his mother Hannah, as she was barren and
she was sore grieved, And she went to the Lord in prayer and
prayed and asked the Lord for a son. And God heard her prayers
and God gave her a son and she gave her son to the Lord. Samuel. That's what the name actually
means, isn't it? Ask of the Lord. Samuel. Ask of the Lord. And then the
book ends with the events about the death of Saul. And that is
a very, or this is a very sad ending. Now I thought there would
be at least three more characters worthy of mention in this book
other than Samuel and Saul. Hannah, she would certainly be
one of the main characters. And what a lovely example is
she, a woman of faith and a woman of dedication, a woman of praise. And then, of course, David. We'd
have to mention him because he is called in this book a man
after God's own heart. And then, Jonathan. We couldn't
pass over Jonathan because what we read about Jonathan, we see
he was a loyal son. He followed his father, though
he was not always in agreement with his father, but he was loyal. to his father and a true friend. He was loyal to his friend David. So those three we would also
mention. But the contrast that I want
to make in the end of these two main characters in the deaths
of these two men, the death of Samuel and the death of Saul. As for Samuel, I want us to look
at a couple of places back in this book, first in chapter 12. As to Samuel, he was a faithful
servant of God. He was a prophet of God, and
he was faithful to God. And here in this chapter, he
calls the nation of Israel to record, to witness that his ministry,
his service, it wasn't the things of the Israelites, but it was
the Israelites that he was concerned about. We see that in the Apostle
Paul in the New Testament. He wasn't after the things that
those he preached to could give him, like money and clothes and
things like that, but his concern was for their souls. for their
souls, not yours, but you," he said, you. And we see the same
thing was true of Samuel, and it's true of all of God's men,
faithful men of God. But here in verses three and
four, we read, behold, here I am, this is Samuel speaking, witness
against me before the Lord and before his anointed, whose ox
have I taken? Can you accuse me, witness against
me now? Have I taken someone's ox? Whose ox have I taken? Or whose
ass have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom
have I oppressed? Or of whose hand have I received
any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? You know, he was a
judge, wasn't he? Not only a prophet of God, but
he was a judge. He judged Israel, and judges
are tempted many times with bribes, and that's something that God
hates. God hates for justice to be not administered as it
should be. God makes it clear that we should
not favor the poor in justice or the rich in justice. But all
men should be just, judged rather justly. And Samuel says, who's
witness against me? Have I taken a bribe of anyone
when I was called to judge in any matter? The rich man maybe
slipped me some money under the table, you know, and I found
in his favor. No, no, never, never. and I will restore it to you."
And notice, he called them to record. He called them to testify
to this truth, and they did so. And they said, thou hast not
defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught
of any man's hand. He called them. He called him
to testify and the testimony they gave of him was good. He was a faithful, loyal servant
of the Lord. But then turn to chapter 25.
Chapter 25, we read about his death. That's the point I want to make,
the contrast between these two main characters, their deaths.
Here in chapter 25 and verse 1, we just simply read this,
and Samuel died. And Samuel died. And all the Israelites were gathered
together and lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah. You know, he's listed in Hebrews
chapter 11. Chapter 11 has been called the
hall of fame or hall of faith, you know, by faith Abel, by faith
Noah, so on all through that chapter. And Samuel is mentioned
there. And this is what is recorded
about all of those men and women in that chapter. These all died
in faith. They all died in faith. Samuel
died in faith. And that's what is all important,
isn't it? It's not so much where we die,
when we die, but that we die in faith, believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ, trusting in Him and His righteousness for all
our salvation. These all died in faith. not having received the promises."
Now, what does that mean? It means that these all died
in faith before Christ came and fulfilled the promises. The promises
were given there in the garden, the first promise of the coming
of Christ who would bruise the head of the serpent, the seed
of the woman, and promise after promise was given. But all of
those listed in that chapter, they didn't live to see the birth
of Christ. They didn't live to see the things
we were talking about just a moment ago, the Lord Jesus Christ in
Gethsemane praying that night. Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. They lived before the Lord Jesus
Christ was taken and abused by Pilate's soldiers and Gabbatha
in that hall of judgment, and they lived before the Lord Jesus
Christ was taken up to Mount Calvary and crucified and slain. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, that is the fulfillment of the
promises, but having seen them afar off." How did they see them? How did they see these things?
By faith. We walk by faith. We live by
faith, don't we? They, having seen these things
afar off, and they were persuaded of them. And they embraced them. Abraham, our Lord said, Abraham
saw my day and he rejoiced. How many years, how many centuries,
millenniums before Christ came into this world did Abraham live? But he saw Christ's day. Just
like this verse tells us, having seen them afar off and were persuaded
of them. That's part of what faith is,
isn't it? Persuasion. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I am persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. And confessed that
they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Now the Lord willing,
I'm going to preach the funeral tomorrow afternoon of a man like
Samuel, a man who was a faithful servant of the Lord. What a blessing
it is to see the end of a child of God, the end of his life in
this world, I should say, right? Because we know for a child of
God, we have eternal life. And we just move from place to
a better place. But look at the end of Saul's
life now, the contrast, the end of Samuel's life. Faithful man
of God, and when he died, he died in faith, and it says all
Israel lamented his death, that he was taken from them. So, as we see in this last chapter,
His three sons were slain. And the way it is written, I
cannot prove this, but it just seems to me that, that Jonathan
and Abinadab and Malchi Chua, his three sons in battle, he
had another son who was not with him, but it just seems that these
three sons were close to their father in the battle and saw
saw his sons killed. And he was wounded. He was wounded
by the archers. In other words, someone drew
a bow. And that's who they fought against.
That's the way these armies usually fought. They would look for the
king. Remember when the king of Judah
He aligned himself with the king of Israel. That's years later,
after the division. And the king of Israel was Ahab. And they went out to battle,
and the country they were fighting against, the king said, don't
fight with anyone but the king. Of course, Ahab disguised himself
and went into the battle. The king of Judah, I can't recall
his name right now. He was a good king. I think it
was Jehoshaphat, a good king of Judah. But at first they thought
he was the king of Israel and they were chasing him. They were
going to kill him. And the Lord saved him. And that's
when, you know, that prophet had told Ahab, if you come back
from the battle today, God hasn't spoken by me. And sure enough,
one of these archers, he drew a bow at a venture, the scripture
says, and let that arrow go. And it found that place in the
armor of Ahab. Though he was disguised and they
didn't recognize him as a king, but God knew he was a king. And
God caused that arrow to end the life of Ahab that day. as he had said by his prophet
Micaiah. Well, here's Saul. It looks to
me like he sees his three sons slain there on the battlefield,
and he's wounded, and he asked his armor bearer to end his life. Take your sword and kill me. That's what he's saying, isn't
it? And the armor bearer wouldn't do it. He was afraid to do it.
And so Saul killed himself. He took his own life. He fell
on his sword. One of the writers that I was
reading this past week, looking at this chapter, he gave five
texts of scripture that he said were suggested by this scene. If you could just picture the
battle scene. Here's this three sons, the princes
and the king. and his armor bearer, their bodies
there on the field. He said this suggested to him,
and I agree with him. Number one, these five verses
of scripture. Number one, sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. That's James chapter one and
verse 15. Number two, for none of us liveth
to himself, and no man dieth to himself. The influence that
this father had over his sons, leading them as he had into battle. The influence, no man liveth
to himself and no man dieth to himself. Romans 14, verse seven. And now number three, Ecclesiastes
nine in verse 18. One sinner destroyeth much good. One sinner, Saul, one sinner
destroyeth much good. You see, he was in a position
of leadership, right? He was in a position where he
had influence. He had influence over others,
influence over the nation. One sinner destroyeth much good. The fourth verse, the triumphing
of the wicked is short-lived, and the joy of the hypocrite
but for a moment. That's found in Job chapter 20
and verse 5. And the last scripture, another
one from Ecclesiastes, in the place where the tree falleth,
there it shall be. Saul, as in the New Testament,
we read, he that is filthy, let he be filthy still. When a lost
man, a sinner like Saul, When he leaves this world, death leaves
him as it finds him. Finds him a man out of Christ,
leaves him a man out of Christ. Now, before I move on to my second
point, I want us to think about this lesson. Saul, as we see
here, is a man in great trouble. His children are dead. His sons
are dead, rather. He's wounded. He's in great trouble,
but he has no God to look to. That's sad, isn't it? That's
sad for a man or woman to come down to the end of life, wrestling
with death, and have no God to turn to. To look to? Well, look at this
great promise we have, you and I, Isaiah chapter 43. I'm talking about believers when
I say you and I. Look at this wonderful promise.
You know it probably without me even reading it, but in Isaiah
43, in verses one and two, But now
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee,
O Israel, fear not, fear not. Isn't that what our Lord told
his disciples the night before he was taken? Fear not. Let not your hearts be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, the waters of death, the Jordan, when you pass through
the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. Amen. What a promise. Here's
my second division. Let's see God's providence in
the death of Jonathan. Now all that we read about Jonathan,
I may have mentioned this earlier, but all that we read about Jonathan
in this first book makes me believe that he was a true Israelite,
that he was one who, like Abraham, saw Christ's day and rejoiced. But remember this, God had ordained
and God had prophesied by Jacob years before that the king would
not come from the tribe of Benjamin, but the king would come from
the tribe of Judah. Shiloh is the name that he was
given there in Genesis 49, the savior Shiloh. To him shall the
gathering of the people be. What people? God's elect people,
right? God's chosen people. To him,
shall the gathering of the people be. And he said, and I, if I
be lifted up, shall draw all unto me. And the Lord Jesus Christ,
he does draw all of his people unto himself. He's the Shiloh
that Jacob prophesied of. And he would be the son of David. We know that in Luke chapter
one, we read about the angel who was sent to Mary. And Mary
was of the tribe of Judah. He would be a son of David. Now had Jonathan lived, Jonathan
is slain here. Had Jonathan lived, now he was
the firstborn son of Saul. And as kings, kingdoms are passed
from one to the other, usually that's the way it goes, to the
firstborn. Had Jonathan lived, He would not have insisted on
being king. I know that. He's made that clear
in this book. He knew that God had chosen David,
had anointed David to be king. But there were people in Israel
who loved Jonathan. Remember that time he and his
armor bearer went up and fought against the Philistines and saw
made that rash vow, and he said, whoever eats today is going to
be slain. And Jonathan didn't hear that,
and he took his spear and stuck it in that honey, remember, and
took a bite of that. And when they found out it was
Jonathan, Saul said, he's got to die. That was the vow. And the people said, no, no,
he's not gonna die. There would have been many people
that Jonathan had not lived who would have insisted that he become
king. Now they do make one of Saul's
sons a king. Abner does that, the commander-in-chief
of the army. But it wasn't God's will, and
we'll see if we go on into 2 Samuel, how that turned out. But another
thing, as I said, Samuel, Jonathan would have insisted that David,
yeah, he's the king. I'll be his servant. He's the
king. What would the people have thought? Well, Jonathan made him king.
Jonathan made him the king. No, no, that's not going to be. God made him king. Just like
he made his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, king of kings. Look with me in Psalm 2. I say in the providence of God,
Jonathan must die, he must die. In Psalm chapter two, familiar
to most of us I'm sure, verse one, why do the heathen rage
and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against
the Lord. and against his anointed, saying,
let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cards from
us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Now watch
this. Yet, this is God speaking, yet
have I said, my king, upon my holy hill of Zion. He's the king
of kings. He's the king of Zion, the church
of the Lord of God. Well, let's go back and finish
with one other point. The work of these valiant men
of Jabesh Gilead. The next day after Saul took
his own life, his body and the bodies of his sons were found
by the Philistines. And we read these four things
happen. The Philistines cut off Saul's head. Israel wanted a king, remember,
to be their head. Well, we see they wanted a king
to be like all nations, and here their king has his head cut off. Second, the Philistines displayed
his armor. They took his armor. the armor
of the king, and they sent it around, evidently, among the
cities of the Philistines, and they gave glory to their idols,
to their false gods. This is what our God did. He
gave us the victory. Here's proof of it. Here's the
armor of the king of Israel. And then we read the third thing,
they put his armor in the house of Ashtaroth. You know who Ashtaroth
is or was? The female deity, a female deity. And we see it comes up several
times in the Old Testament. They worshiped a female goddess. And number four, they fastened
his body, that is Saul's body, to a wall. Now the inhabitants
of Jabesh Gilead, and it says the valiant man, the valiant
man of Jabesh Gilead. Remember, you probably won't
remember this, but when I remind us of it, you will. When we first
saw Become King, way back earlier in this book, the first show
of leadership concerned this place called Jabesh Gilead. The
Ammonites gave them a choice to become their servants, which
they were willing to do. But then they said, well, when
you do, we're going to put out your right eye. Every man will
have his right eye put out. And when Saul heard that, remember,
he was coming from his field. And when he heard that, he called,
he sent a message throughout Israel and rallied the people,
the warriors in Israel. And they came and they delivered
this town of Jabesh-Gilead. And now we see these valiant
men, they go by night and they take down his body and the bodies,
the corpses, I should say, of Saul and his sons. And they brought
them to Jabesh and they burned them. Now that was not typical
of the Jews to burn the dead. They buried their dead, we know
that. But I can just imagine the bodies
were being decomposing after so long, being out in the open. And the best thing they could
do was to burn them and then bury their ashes and their bones. I want to say this in closing. There is a last chapter to every man's life. The psalmist said, we spend our
years as a tale that is told. Each day, you and I, we're writing
in our life's book, not knowing When the last period, when the
last period will be made, how we should learn, you and
I, especially me, how we should learn to live every day as though
it were our last day. And it may well be. It could
very well be every day that we live in this world. And one day,
we know it will be. The last day, the chapter will
be ended. Our life story will be ended. I pray the Lord would bless these
thoughts to all of us here. What a wonderful Savior. We sang
that hymn at the beginning of the service. Hallelujah, what
a Savior. Hallelujah, what a Savior.