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Alright, we're in 2nd Samuel chapter number 1 Look down at your Bibles of verse 17 the title of the sermon this morning is how are the mighty fallen? How are the mighty fallen look down at your Bibles of verse 17? It says and David lamented with his lamentation oversaw and over Jonathan his son Also, he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the boat behold It is written in the book of Jasher the beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places How are the mighty fallen skip down to verse number 24 it says he daughters of Israel weep over Saul Who clothed you in scarlet with other delights who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel? How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle Oh Jonathan that was slain in thine high places I am distressed for thee my brother Jonathan very pleasant has thou been unto me thy love to me was wonderful Passing the love of a woman. How art thou fallen, excuse me How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished? So here we see in 2nd Samuel chapter number 1 a lamentation of David over the death of Jonathan and Saul We obviously understand that prior to this Saul had fallen upon his own sword. He committed suicide But even prior to that his condemnation was already decreed by God by the spirit of Samuel Through the hand of the Philistines. So either way he was gonna die He had gone so far from God that God was gonna take his life he was gonna just destroy him because he was no longer valuable and in fact, he was becoming a detriment to the kingdom and Unfortunately, his sons were gonna pay the price as well. So they both died Jonathan and his other sons Perished in battle the Philistines were out to get Saul and instead of falling onto the uncircumcised Philistines He chose to fall upon his own sword and he committed suicide. He died So this is a lamentation of David because David loves Saul. He loved Jonathan. He loved Saul. He respected them He honored them and it was a great grievance unto him the fact that he would lose his king and his friend Jonathan Now although this lamentation was for both Jonathan and Saul primarily gonna focus on Saul this morning and I'm gonna analyze the demise of Saul how that came about. How is it to someone as mighty as Saul? You know who can who conquered many enemies he did a lot of exploits he was used in a great way How is it that someone like King could get so far away from God and become a castaway? How are the mighty fallen and this is very important because of the fact that the principles we're gonna look at this morning apply to us today, you know the Bible tells us he that stand and take heed lest he fall and We know that the things that happen unto Saul can happen to any Christian individual any believer can fall into these same traps You know Saul was a saved man, and he was given into the temptation of his flesh He became rebellious and prideful and ultimately that led to his destruction and his fall now Let me say this is that Saul is a pretty essential character a person in the Old Testament for various reasons Obviously, we know that Saul was the first monarch of the kingdom of Israel You know prior to him the nation of Israel was ruled under the system of the judges the last judge being Samuel and It was after that the the nation of Israel. They wanted a king. They wanted an earthly king They didn't want to be ruled under a theocracy They wanted an earthly king to be like the other nations and God allowed them to have that through Saul He became the first king of that United Kingdom. So that's why he's important. The second reason would be because His story of disobedience sin and rebellion Really has been used for thousands of years as a byword and a proverb to instruct us on what not to do You know the Bible also, you know often talks about the testimonies of the Lord What is the testimony a testimony is a story of a person who either obeyed God or did not obey God? And when we look at someone who obeyed God we see the blessings and the prospering of their life And what do we do? We emulate those same actions? We emulate that obedience so that we can receive the same results Well in like manner when we look at someone in the Bible who was rebellious against God He disobeyed God and he suffered the consequences of those actions. We look at that and say, okay That's something that we should not do. You know, we need to avoid the path of Saul We need to avoid the path of those who are disobedient so that we know we don't suffer those same Ramifications that they did and so, you know, his story is used multiple times, you know Thousands of times throughout history from pulpits of pastors who have used them as an example to teach us what not to do, right? He's a byword and a proverb but not only that but he also symbolizes through his disobedience Unfortunately, you know the the the nation of Israel according to the flesh Because if you think about David David is is a representation of Jesus Christ But he also represents believers in the New Testament and in like manner Saul represents the unsaved nation of Israel in the New Testament as well And you see a lot of parallels there, you know You see that when the kingdom of God or excuse me when the kingdom is removed from him It's given to someone who is better than him, right? you know Samuel goes to Saul and he says that the The kingdom of God shall be taken from him and given to a neighbor of thou that is better than thou And that's very reminiscent to what we see in the New Testament when Jesus tells the Jews that the kingdom of God should be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof and In fact that parallel is so keen That when Samuel tells Saul that the kingdom of God is being taken from him He specifically says it's given to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou that neighbor being who David David picturing Jesus Christ and the Bible tells us in the New Testament Hebrews chapter number eight that Jesus Christ is the mediator of What a better covenant which is established upon better Promises it kind of helps you to just admire the foreknowledge of God so much the more because he used Saul's rebellion his disobedience his failure to really picture something beautiful in the New Testament, which is the better covenant, okay So he's used as a byword in a proverb We see that Saul persecuted David just as the Jews persecuted the Christians in the New Testament many parallels there That's the sermon for another day Now here's another thing is that His unfortunate decision to commit suicide if you think about it has been used to prove the doctrine of eternal security I mean if you've been hit with this whole thing of well, you know You can lose your salvation because if you commit suicide you'll lose it, you know, that's the unpardonable sin How many of us have used Saul as an example to prove? No, you cannot you know, it's a great example now It's unfortunate that he did that. It's unfortunate. It's dishonorable You know, it's a reproach upon his life But here's the thing Thank You Saul because you've helped us to prove our point on this matter of eternal security You know because when people for some reason people have in their minds, you know When they have a when they struggle to accept the doctrine of eternal security, which basically means once you're saved You're always saved they often bring up this concept of suicide and for some reason they think that suicide is just this unpardonable sin Whereas the Bible tells us that the man is blessed, you know whose sins are forgiven whose iniquities are covered and whose sins And whom God will not impute sin the Bible says that's a future tense Referring to the fact that God forgives us of past present and future sins we they will never be remembered and Saul's used in that area because we know that Samuel the spirit of Samuel comes to Saul and he condemns him and he says thou and thy son shall be with me, right? Insinuating that he's gonna die in battle and their souls are gonna be with Samuel. We know that Samuel was saved He was in heaven great story there to prove eternal security so it goes without saying that he's pretty much a very important person in the Bible and One thing you'll notice in David's lamentation is the fact that Saul is referred to as someone who was mighty You know, this is what he says over and over again verse 19 the beauty of Israel slain upon the high places How are the mighty fallen and we know that Saul was a very mighty person not just Physically speaking but his leadership skills. They were mighty He had the dexterity and the skill to be able to lead the children of Israel. I mean, he was a mighty man, right? But here's the thing. What was he lacking the Spirit of God? You know, even though he had might even though he had physical power Because the Spirit of God had left him because he no longer had God's power in his life He was nothing and what does the Bible tell us about that tells us not by might nor by power But by my spirit saith the Lord Zechariah 4 6 so it's telling us that hey It doesn't mean that power is not important physical might is not important. Those things are important But you know what if you're absent of the Spirit of God, you're nothing You know the Bible tells us that without Christ we can do nothing John chapter 15 Abide in me and I in him, you know so we can bring forth much fruitful without him We can do nothing the Bible says We can have all the skills and the gifts and the abilities that we want But at the end of the day if we don't have God's Spirit his power dwelling within us upon us We have nothing now in the New Testament when we get saved We're indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the Bible tells us they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of redemption But that doesn't mean that God's power can't be taken from us, you know, God's Spirit is in us but it all depends upon his power upon our lives really depends upon if we walk in the Spirit if We are led of the Spirit if we're filled with the Spirit and so we see there that though he had might he still fell Okay, and let that be a lesson to all of us right there though. We're you know, we're mighty though We're strong though. We have strong qualities and characteristics. It cannot be Without the power of God. Okay, you know the Bible tells us you see your calling brethren How that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called So even if you do have an absence of might and strength and power Hey, you know as long as you have God's power you can still do great and mighty things So we see that with Saul now go to first Samuel chapter number nine first Samuel chapter number nine Both Jonathan and Saul were mighty people but you know what without God's blessing we're nothing We can have our ducks in order We can make sure that we have all our talents and our giftedness and our skills and everything that makes us who we are But you know what if we don't have God's favor upon our church if we don't have God's favor upon us as individuals We're not gonna get very far. In fact, we're not gonna go anywhere. In fact, God's if God's hand is against us We're really not going anywhere other than to the grave. Okay So let's analyze Saul's demise here So prior to this as I mentioned the nation of Israel was ruled by the system of the judges They wanted an earthly king. They got him through Samuel now. I want to look at first his distinction What made him distinct what made him different? Let's look at his successes first because what Saul did to be successful What he did to become a king are things that we can do to be used of God as well And these are things that we should look at These are things that we should seek to emulate because they're all across the board, you know applicable to all of us Both Old and New Testament and saw had certain attributes that really set him apart from everyone else Okay Look at chapter 9 verse number 1 and says now there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel the son of Zeror the son of Bekorath the son of a fire Benjamin a mighty man of power and he had a son whose name was Saul a Choice young man and a goodly and there was not among the children of Israel a Goodly or person than he from his shoulders and upward He was higher than any of the people so right off the bat. He has pretty good criteria right there, right? I mean one characteristic he just reiterates three times. He says he's a choice young man He's goodly there was not among the children of Israel a goodly or person than he he's a goodly guy. Okay, and We see that when he says choice or goodies referring to the fact that you know, he's excellent He's very prime. He's exceptional. Okay This is someone you can look at and say yeah, this is a leader. This person has the abilities He has you know, the characteristics and attributes that are worthy for leadership. Okay, and We can look at something like that and have a spiritual application to say this, you know We as Christians should be choice people as well, right? We should be excellent. We should be primed We should be exceptional and do all we can to be meet for the Masters use Because God looked at Saul looked at his attributes and his characteristics and chose him to be king based upon those things You know the Bible tells us if a man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor Sanctified and meet for the Masters used and prepared unto every good work now Obviously we understand that God uses the weak things of this world to confound the wise, right? he uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and the weak things of this world to confound the mighty and Things which are not to bring to not the things which are you know, we understand that but at the end of the day You know God wants us also to be prepared. He wants us to grow. He wants us to have skills He wants us to have that which is necessary so we can be meet For the Masters use prepared unto every good work. He wants us to be choice young people, right? You know God can't and will not use a dirty cup so to speak Okay, if you're living a life of sin if you're out there doing things that are not pleasing unto the Lord God's not gonna use you he's not gonna his hands not gonna be upon you His grace is not gonna be upon you in that area, you know, and the Bible tells us. Hey ye are chosen Generation a royal priesthood that ye should show forth the praises of him who had called you out of darkness into his marvelous life Hey, if we are already the chosen people of God, we should behave as such right be choice be excellent be prime Be exceptional as Christians, okay And look people may not like that but it's but it's fact, you know God uses those who are obedient to him who are serving him And in fact the Bible even says that the Lord had set apart him that is godly for himself Psalms chapter 4 verse 3. I mean think about that for a second. That means yes. God has favorites folks God sometimes shows favoritism and who does he show favoritism towards those who are godly He sets those apart for himself to do what to just show them off. No to use them. Okay that's why there's always a remnant a Residue of people of Christians who are used of God greatly because if it was easy everyone would be doing it You know to be godly to be holy to live a life displeasing unto the Lord. It takes work. It's difficult. It's hard. Okay But those are the people that God uses. That's why Saul was being used. He's a choice young man He's goodly and then it says this that From his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. So what does that mean? He was tall Okay, he's a man of stature. All right So from a visible standpoint He had physical prowess now understandable, you know as a king as an earthly king, that's probably important, you know You know to maybe have that visible feature that you are tall that you are not only you know have character and physically and Skill and the ability to lead but you should probably look like that too According to what we see here because people saw me like yeah, he's he's shoulders and upward. He's taller than anyone else now Thankfully, this is not something that's necessary for us. Amen You know in order to be used of God, we don't need to be tall. Okay? But he looked like a grown man and Here's the thing though We don't have to worry about being taught because the Bible says that we can't add with one thought You know a stature a cubit to our stature thankfully, you know, unfortunately, you know, we are to grow in spiritual stature, right So we should be able to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ You see when you look at a grown man, you say okay. He is grown. He's grown. He's he's 20 years old He's 30 years old. He's physically grown. Well in like manner Spiritually speaking people should be able to look at us and say okay that person is spiritually mature That person has spiritually grown. He has spiritual stature to himself But here's the unfortunate thing, you know, if you don't grow in your faith, then you become a spiritual dwarf Right because you're not growing in grace someone who doesn't read the Bible someone who doesn't pray someone who's not Exercising their faith. They're actually spiritually small in the eyes of God What's important is not the physical stature of a Christian but rather the spiritual stature Okay, and in fact when speaking of Jesus in Luke chapter 2 it tells us that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature And in favor with God and man, I don't believe it's referring to his physical stature Because I think that would be obvious right someone who's growing physically. They're gonna grow in stature I believe this is referring to the fact that he's growing spiritually. He's growing in wisdom. He's growing spiritually in his stature God is more concerned with the stature of our faith He wants us to Be strong in faith to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might to be spiritually tall, right? You know, some people are more concerned with how tall the Nephilim's were the so-called Nephilim's what they should be is be a spiritual Nephilim or maybe that's not a good analogy a Spiritual giant, okay And in fact the Bible tells us that the church you say well, how do I do that? Well coming to church is one area where you can grow spiritually right Because the Bible tells us that this is here for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of The body of Christ look what it says till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son Of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ So again, we see that emphasis that's being placed There is a spiritual stature that we can measure up to the Word of God that we can grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ And be spiritually tall Spiritually shoulders and upward higher than everyone else. Okay, and look it should be said that Christians are Spiritually taller than anybody else in this world You know Spiritually taller than any other religion than any other denomination, especially independent fundamental Baptist. Amen We should be spiritually taller than everyone else he said why so you can brag know so that we so the people would come to us and Seek out the truth right seek leadership seek the truth seek the the statutes of God Okay, because of the spiritual faith that we have look the Bible tells us He would grant you according to the riches of his grace to be strengthened with my in the inner man And it tells us that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love May be able to comprehend with all saints What is the breadth length depth and what height and to know the love of Christ that passeth all knowledge? You know instead of worrying about the height of your statue your stature, you know wearing these male high heels or something or platforms Whatever may be, you know focus on knowing the love of Christ that passeth all knowledge the height of the love of Christ That is what we should be concerned with now physically saw had that okay But I believe spiritually that is what God wants of us. He wants us to be spiritually tall Not only that but he was humble go to first Samuel chapter 10 So we see that he was a choice young man. He was goodly Shoulders and upward he was taller than all the people higher than all the people He was also humble and look humility such an important characteristic, right? I Mean in order for God to use anybody they need humility Look what it says in first Samuel chapter 10 verse 21 when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families the family of Matri was taken and Saw the son of Kish was taken and when they sought him he could not be found now mind you He was already chosen by Samuel. He already Samuel had already approached him about being the king and yet he here he's not found Where is he verse 22? Therefore they inquired of the Lord further if the man should yet come thither and the Lord answered behold He hath hid himself among the stuff. What is it? He's just he's like shy he's humble He's like he feels he's not worthy to be the king to the point where he's hiding himself And they ran and fetched him thence and when he stood among the people he was higher than any of the people From his shoulders and upward so even though he had his physical prowess and he looked like he could lead He was still very humble. He was very what little in his sights So though in the eyes of the multitudes he was shoulders and upward higher than everyone else in his own sight He was little and in fact, the unfortunate thing is that when Samuel reproves Saul right for not destroying all the Amalekites and for saving King Agag He tells them when thou was little in thine own sights. What does that mean? He was humble at one point Okay, and look that's what that's important is that when we as Christians maybe we begin to grow we begin to become successful We prosper we do great exploits. We remain little in our own sight Well, man, you should have seen how many souls I won and I'm such a great soul winner No at that point you're becoming big in your own sight Remain humble remain little in your own sight because that is what is what guarantees us to be used Continually used of God But it's when you think that well, you know, it's by my my my strength my talent my ability You know that has gotten me to this point. No, it's by God's grace that you've gotten to that point You know, obviously there's the element in the factor of obedience But here's the thing. We need to remain little in our own sight. Isn't that interesting is that? Even though everyone else saw him as tall as grand as big He was still little in his own sight to the point where he hid himself among the stuff This is why God used saw in such a great way Was because of his humility and the Bible tells us in the New Testament that we need to be clothed With humility why because you know when you are yielded to the Lord and you serve God you're filled with the Spirit God can use you in great ways To see multitude say to make a difference in people's lives to disciple people to preach great sermons to gain influence Whatever it may be, you know, whatever happens We need to make sure that we still take inventory and say well, you know, it's by God's power It's by the grace of God. I am what I am right and clothe yourself with humility so that we don't you know Become prideful because what happens when you become prideful and you fall, okay So we see that there. These were the qualities that made saw great now think about this. Okay God had a big plan for Saul. I Mean he had a huge plan for so I don't think we realize how big of a plan God had for Saul Because when he removes the kingdom from him, he says that his kingdom shall be removed forever The insinuation there is that his kingdom was supposed to be established forever So instead of saying Christ the son of David we could have been saying today Christ the son of Saul if he remained obedient Pretty sad, huh? You know, he forfeited that privilege to be called to be to be looked upon as a David so to speak Okay, and we'll get into that just a bit. So those were his distinctions. You know, that's what set him apart That's what made him different that's what made him successful and these are qualities that we as Christians need to apply to our own lives and make sure that we Take inventory and not become prideful Make sure we stay humble stay sanctified stay in the Word of God stay usable Okay, now go to first Samuel chapter 13 if you would so those were his distinctions now, let's begin to look at his downfall his downfall Look at first Samuel chapter 13. What was the first thing that he did? That really led to his demise or his downfall. Well, number one was his lack of faith Okay, and that's where it all starts folks Is that when we begin to question the Word of God by not obeying the Word of God? What happens that shows a lack of faith and it is it any coincidence that in the Hall of Faith in Hebrew chapter 11 Saul's not there David is so well, hold on a second didn't David commit adultery and commit murder. Yeah, but you know what? He's still exercise faith But Saul did it because here in first Samuel chapter 13 we see that the enemies of God are gonna come upon saw and upon Israel and Saul needs God's favor. So he wants to offer a sacrifice, but he himself can't do it He needs to wait for Samuel to do it Look what it says in verse 7 and some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead as for Saul He was yet in Gilgal and all the people followed him trembling. So everyone's afraid and He tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed But Samuel came not to Gilgal and the people were scattered from him. So we see Psalm His enemies are gonna come upon him. He's waiting for his leader to come his leader saying hey I'm gonna be there in seven days the people become so afraid they tremble that they scatter from him They they forsake him Verse 9 and Saul said bring you there a burnt offering to me and peace offerings and he offered the burnt offering So what happened he became impatient What did what was he doing? He lacked faith Samuel told him I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna offer it God's gonna favor you God's gonna help you to win and he was impatient. He could not wait and he did it himself a great sin Verse number 10 and it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering Behold Samuel came isn't that doesn't that stink like if you just would have waited just a little longer You know, by the way, this shows us that you know delayed gratification is important And when you feel like you just can't hang on there, you know any longer just wait a little bit because Samuel's coming He's on his way. In fact, he's coming through the doors Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him that he might salute him and Samuel said what is that done? Saul said well because I saw that the people were scattered from me The doubt came it's not within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Micmash He's making all these excuses for his rebellion You know, he's basically saying well, you know because of you Samuel you the Philistines. He's blaming everyone but himself And we see that with Saul a lot don't we he passes the buck to everyone else and look This is a major flaw of Saul that he's not willing to take responsibility for his actions Therefore said I the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal and have not made a supplication unto the Lord. I Force my Self therefore and offered a burnt offering. He thinks the same is gonna be like, oh, okay. I'm sorry about that Yeah, we're gonna cut up somewhere. Yeah, it's fine. Don't worry. You were placed in a difficult position You know, the Philistines were gonna come upon you. I was a little late, you know, it's reasonable I understand why you did that no false wrong He says I forced myself verse 13 and Samuel said to Saul thou has done foolishly Let me translate that you're stupid Why would you do that That was not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God which he commanded thee for now Look what it says would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever What is that referring to in other words God had a plan for Saul to establish his kingdom He was going to be the one that we all say the son of Saul and What he's specifically referring to there is that his sons were supposed to reign After him it was supposed to stay in his, you know lineage so to speak Who knows maybe Saul would've been the one who wrote the book of Psalms I don't know, but apparently there is a big plan that God had for Saul, but you know what that is now removed He said for now with the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever, but now Thy kingdom shall not continue now is he saying you're no longer gonna be a king No, because he's still permitted to be the king thereafter. It's just that it was gonna stop with him Jonathan and his other sons were not gonna be a part of that It was gonna be given to someone else But here's the thing God in his graciousness was still gonna allow Saul to be the king until his office was done It says but now thy kingdom shall not continue The Lord had sought him a man after his own heart and the Lord has commanded him to be be captain over his people Because that was not kept that which the Lord commanded thee so we see here that due to his Impatience which basically resulted in his lack of faith his disobedience to God's Word it cost him the lineage the kingly lineage so to speak the privilege to be that symbol that picture of What David is? Okay That's a big blow if you think about it It's like man because it's it's settled forever in heaven I mean, it's forever that this is the this is the Word of God. It's not gonna change and That will forever remain You know a reproach upon Saul that his kingdom could have been established forever, but because of his lack of faith He failed and it was removed from him. But here's the thing, you know, God is still gracious There's still plan B. He could still be used greatly of God Because he's not saying I'm gonna dethrone you he just basically saying your sons are not gonna rain after you I'm gonna choose someone else, you know after you but he can still serve God. He can still do great exploits for the Lord So what do we see here? We see his lack of faith and look folks you'd be surprised what your lack of faith the ramifications you can suffer from your lack of faith Don't just breeze over and say well, you know, if I don't obey God in this area And if I lack faith in this area, it's not gonna cost me much You know what? It may not cost you much, but it will cost your children much Cuz who did it cost Jonathan? Who did it cost his sons? Who did it cost his family? And you may think to yourself. Well, it's good that peace be in my days But yeah, but what about the days of your children though? Your lack of faith you may be able to conquer that you may be able to bounce back But your children might not be able to bounce back from your lack of faith That's why it's important that when we as Christians make decisions We make them based upon how it will affect the next generation not have a Hezekiah Mentality where it's just like well as long as peace and good as in my days, you know You know to nuts with the next generation Saul messed up his punishment was that the kingdom was not his kingdom was not going to continue now at this point if Saul was reasonable. He would have just been like well man. I messed up I'm gonna repent but hey, at least I still get to be the king. I'm gonna try to do as much good as possible I'm gonna try to do as many exploits as I possibly can to at least finish well You know, so at least in the Bible something is said about me that says, you know, yeah He disobeyed in this area, but he loved the Lord. He still obeyed God He did a lot of exploits, you know Jehu kind of comes to mind right where even though he messed up he did a lot of great exploits and he's still admired by many That's what he could have done. Okay? So this cost him an eternal position his son will no longer be his successor and Now at this point we start seeing a downward spiral because what do we see after this we see that he begins to make These outlandish oaths, you know causing his soldiers not to eat and doing all these weird things And what we see here is that prior to this, you know, Saul was turned into another man The Bible says he prophesied amongst the prophets He was being used greatly, but now we see that he's not turned into another man In fact, he's not walking in the spirit. He's doing things that are contrary to God's Word now go to what chapter you in You're in 13 go to 15 Go to chapter 15 Faith is important folks It's important that we exercise our faith. It's important that we believe amen That we continuously believe we believe that God can can can provide for us that God can protect us that God can use us And it takes faith to obey God's commandments one. They don't seem to make sense at times You know The Bible says lean not until thine own understand trust the Lord with all thine heart Lean not into thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths What is the same have faith in God's Word and there's times when if we're in the flesh or we're just not having a good day We read the Word of God and we know what the Bible says about a specific aspect of our life and it's tempting not to trust You know, it's tempting to say yeah, but my situation yeah, but the Philistines yeah, but you came late Yeah, but my church. Yeah, but this and that, you know, why don't you just have faith in God? and obey the commandments in spite of the Circumstances and look if your circumstances seem like they can never change. Well, you know what? That's a good time for a miracle to pop in Because a miracle is when God Expends, you know the elements of this world in order to show himself strong on those whose heart is perfect with him You know have faith don't be like Saul and just force yourself to commit some wicked sin and try to justify that Okay You know this happens sometimes with young men Where you know, they're they're living for God and they're just like man. I want a wife. I want to get married You know, I want a spouse and then you know The the spouse doesn't come their way or God doesn't send them anybody and then they force themselves to get into an ungodly relationship You know, they force themselves into dating or being with some unbeliever Right, which God does not approve of or you know, they're in a relationship and they commit fornication Because they're they're fearful what may happen Maybe I'm never gonna find someone or you know They put themselves in a position What to commit some wicked sin and they end up destroying their lives and what do they do they blame everyone else Well, there's not enough girls in our church or whatever, you know Oh my work this I'm just going through this the Philistines were gonna come upon me and I forced myself to be with this This this this whore, right? You know the Bible says to stay away from the whore Look folks and that word offends you then you're gonna be offended by reading the Bible because the Bible uses horror a whole bunch of times And the reason he uses such coarse language is to help you to have an imagery of that woman and to stay away from her For the young man, if you don't like that man go to Proverbs chapter 5 Proverbs chapter 6 Proverbs chapter 7 I mean God talks about it over and over and over again To the point where he refers to America as a whore. I Mean the most disrespectful Analogy that God can come up with to depict the nation that is gonna help the Antichrist come into power He uses a whore In Revelation chapter 17, I don't even know how I got off on that or is that where was I at? What am I talking about? What? Okay, okay, it's a young man, oh he forced himself, thank you Patience. Hey be patient young men, you know be patient and and wait for that God sent Okay, he that findeth a wife find. It's a good thing You know, don't force yourself into some relationship where where she's gonna destroy life and in like manner young ladies same thing You know, oh, you know, I feel like I'm never gonna get married. I'm never gonna find a husband a godly man You know, so I'm just gonna go for this effeminate looking sissy guy Who's just gonna do everything that I tell him to do. I'm just gonna have to settle for that Don't force yourself in that situation Because you will regret it You know get yourself a puppy or something And that's what if you need if you need company because because it because the puppy is just as good as it some effeminate guy Okay You know And at least with the puppy you don't have to deal with it with the with the with the effeminate guys mood swings and whatnot Does he have so much estrogen? Not enough testosterone okay, and So, you know don't force yourself in a relationship just because you feel like you're getting impatient You know, it's best to just wait to be patient wait upon the Lord Okay the Bible tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and He is a rewarder of them to what diligently seek him. So young men young ladies seek the Lord, right? Seek the Lord his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you Including a godly relationship. Okay But but the point is is that hey, you know We need to make sure that we have faith and a way of faith that is expresses through patience Just just the ability to just wait upon the Lord. Okay? Saul didn't do that. Now. We're gonna look into his blatant disobedience So what do we see when it comes to sin? We see that it starts off with maybe a lack of faith, right? But then if you don't get it, right it begins to spiral out of control and you begin to commit worse sins Look at first Samuel 15 verse 1 because we're gonna look at his blatant disobedience and lack of repentance verse number one says Samuel Also said unto Saul the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people over Israel Now therefore harken down to the voice of the words of the Lord. What is he saying? He goes? Hey, you're still King God sent me to anoint you You're still have this position But therefore you need to obey what I'm about to tell you because he has a bit of a track record of being disobedient Thus saith the Lord of hosts. I remember that which Amalek did to Israel How he laid weight for him in the way When he came up from Egypt now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not But slay both man and women Infinite suckling oxen sheep camel and ass and Saul gathered the people together number them in tail aim 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah and Saul came to a city of Amalek and laid weight in the valley So he says look, here's your task. Here's your homework This is what I want you to do just destroy Amalek and in case you're wondering like who I'm just gonna name every single thing You're supposed to destroy. He gives them this this task list, right? He goes make sure this is the hit list right here Verse 6 in Psalm sent into the canines go depart get you down from among the Amalekites actually skip down to verse number 8 and he took a gag the king of the Amalekites alive and Utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. So was a gag supposed to live No, I mean that's that's the guy who's supposed to go first He's the one who's leading the Amalekites, right? He takes him alive. Oh But he utterly destroys all the people with the edge of the sword verse 9 but Saul and the people Spared a gag and the best of the sheep And of the oxen and of the phalanx and the lambs and all that That was good and would not utterly destroy them But everything that was vile and refused that they destroyed utterly now God told him to destroy everything Whether it was good or bad Whether it was of good quality or not God says you need to destroy everything so this is what he does He goes and he says well, let's get the trophy, you know a gag the king and you know what? We've got some pretty good livestock around here. Yeah. Yeah save that one alive Oh, but the one that has like three eyes and the one that's like limping is all disease. Yeah destroy that one. Okay This is this is you know, what is this called this is called partial obedience Which another word for partial obedience is disobedience Because he's not obeying God completely. He's making excuses. And in fact, he thinks he knows more than God Said well, I know God said this But I'm gonna do it this way instead and he thinks he thinks God's gonna approve of it. And by the way He thinks God's gonna approve of it. But in case he doesn't he has a backup plan. Oh, well, who's the people? Right, he starts blaming the people Look at verse 10 then came the word of the Lord into Samuel saying it repented me that I have set up Saul to be king for he has turned back from following me and have not performed my commandments and it grieved Samuel and he cried Into the Lord all night now if you go to the beginning of Saul's story God was very excited about having Saul as king But we obviously understand that God has foreknowledge of the decisions that he was gonna make But yet here we see that it repents him that he had set up Saul to be king What does this tell us about God? It tells us that he always gives us the benefit of the doubt That even though we have the potential to just screw up our lives and do something that's completely, you know against God's will God is still willing to go on the limb and try to use us anyways in Hopes that we will make the right decision. This shows us that God has given to us what free will Because even though he has the foreknowledge of the decisions we're gonna make we can change our direction We can change our paths. You can change the choices that you make and in fact God is rooting for you to do so Because in the beginning he's like excited about having Saul as king. He has high hopes for him. He's blessing him He's using him and yet here we see that when he begins to fall go down that downward spiral It repents him that he set up Saul to be the king and looks Sammy was grieved as well He's crying all the night look at verse 12 And when Sammy rose up early to meet saw in the morning it was told Samuel saying Saul came to Carmel and behold he set him up a place and has gone about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal and Sammy came to Saul and Saul said unto him blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord you liar What are you Tyler you didn't And Samuel said what mean is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and it's lowering of the ox which I hear it's like it's funny you say that what you're saying what I'm hearing are two different things and Saul said they have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord and To the Lord thy God and the rest we have utterly destroyed. So he's saying look he's like hey What is this? I hear livestock in the background. What's up with that? He's like, oh those them They actually the ones who spared it but hold on but they did sacrifice unto the Lord You know, I started a missing church and and you know not doing that because so I can work so I can tithe more, you know You know, I got this job where I just don't attend church at all so I can make more money Church needs it. It's never right to do wrong to do right okay, and This is what he's this is what he's doing here and he's saying, you know to sacrifice unto the Lord So so that Sammy he thinks Sammy's gonna be okay. Well, it's since your sacrifice I guess we're just gonna look the other way. We're just gonna wink at it Then Sammy verse 16 said unto Saul stay now I will tell thee what the Lord said to me this night and he said unto him say on man This guy's just arrogant either. He's just blind arrogant Just ignorant or something. He's like, oh say on he's not even he's not even scared Samuel said when thou was little in thine own sight Was that not made the head of the tribes of Israel and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel and the Lord sent thee on A journey and said go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites and fight against them until they be consumed Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord But didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord and saw sent unto Samuel Yay, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and I've gone the way which the Lord sent me and have brought Agag the king Amalek and utterly destroyed the Amalekites. It's like what you're not listening What do we see here he's stubborn Haven't you met someone who's just so stubborn Like you correct them and you approve them and they're just not willing to adhere to the instruction What does that do that causes you to kind of not despise the person a little more but causes you to be like Like contentious with that person a little more because it's just like you're not being reasonable here You're being stubborn You know, you're being stubborn. You're being a foolish. You're not adhering to instruction You've sinned you've you're wrong and you know people who are stubborn. They don't want to they don't want to admit that I Do it I did obey the commandments of the Lord We just took a gag and then the spoil to sacrifice in the Lord, but that's pretty much obedience, isn't it? No, it's not Verse 21, but the people again blaming the people shifting the blame Took of the spoil sheep and oxen the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed To sacrifice unto the Lord thy God and Gilgal. So what do we see he condemns himself? right because he says That the people took of the spoil sheep oxen the chief things which should have been utterly destroyed So it's not like he misunderstood the instruction He knew what he was supposed to do. He says which should have been utterly destroyed So he knew he knew that he messed up. He knew that he was disobeying. He just felt like he knew better than God Okay, he's making excuses verse 22 and Samuel said hath the Lord as great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to harken than the fat of Rams for rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft and lo and behold Coincidentally, what do we see Saul doing at the end of his life getting involved with witchcraft? because that's where rebellion leads right and stubbornness is as iniquity and Idolatry because that was rejected the word of the Lord. He hath also rejected thee from being king So at this point he's saying I'm dethroning you you're no longer the king you're done Before your lineage was done, but now you're done So his first sin of offering the sacrifice cost him the privilege of having his son reign in his stead His second sin cost him the throne now look at his lack of repentance because you would think that if this came to you You would be like oh, man. I'm so sorry Like how can I fix this? What can I do and wouldn't you agree that God is very merciful? I mean, there's plenty of examples in the Bible where God is about to destroy someone you know and they just weep They point their head towards the wall they weep and God says I'm gonna give you 15 more years. Just like that God is very merciful as high as the heavens are from the earth so great as his mercy towards them that fear him the Bible says great are the mercies of God it. They're so great. They're it's almost scary. How great they are All right But what do we see with Saul look at verse 24 and Saul said unto Samuel I have sinned For I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy words because I fear the people and obey their voice now therefore I pray The pardon my sin and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord now keep in mind. He is standing before Israel Okay, so he's like yeah, I messed up I messed up now come on come and worship with me Look at verse 28 and Samuel sentence him the Lord has rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day and I've given it to the 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 Then he said I have sin. Yeah honor me now. I pray thee before the elders of my people and Before Israel and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God. So is he really concerned with Him breaking and transgressing against the law of the Lord. What is he more concerned with what people think of him? He's like look I messed up but honor me now before the elders Please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel just let's make it seem as though everything is a-okay This Shows us that he thinks very highly of himself. He doesn't want his reputation to be marred So in order for his reputation not to be marred in his eyes He needs the Prophet the man of God to honor him before the people to basically put his stamp of approval So he's he doesn't look like an idiot in front of Israel What does this tell us? He's not repentant. He's not repenting He doesn't have a repenting attitude he's not like David Because think about this didn't David commit some pretty bad wicked sins. I mean wicked, right? But here's the difference Psalm 51 is the difference, right? Here's the difference David was grieved over his own sin and didn't David suffer consequences of his actions. I mean his children died I mean, he suffered a lot of God. David was not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination He messed up a lot but you know what he was a good repenter and He recognized that he sinned against God and it grieved him at his heart because he loved the Lord Whereas saw a lot himself to stray from his love for God He was more concerned with the love and the acclamations of the people whereas David He just wanted to be right with God and look folks. This is the element Because look, we're all gonna sin. We're all gonna make mistakes We're all gonna do things that displease the Lord But here is the defining factor whether God can continue to use you or not. Do you repent? Well, Do you get right with God? Well, or do you just make up excuses? You're just stubborn. You're just rebellious. You're not willing to come to grips with your actions No, what we need to be like is like David. Amen I've sinned against thee. I've sinned against God My transgressions are ever before thee renewing me a right spear create within me a clean heart I mean He should grieve us when we sin against God and it's then that we can experience the mercy of God in our lives Where God can continue to use us and even bless us. I mean look David suffered some pretty harsh consequences, but in general when we think of David we it's like a delightful thought Right we don't think of him as being like a wicked person now if we delve into his story we see some of the wicked things that he did but his You know his stigma is like righteousness Right, like when we think of David we think of pleasant thoughts of David we think of his great exploits We think even after he committed the sin We think of the great things that he did in his life Who's responsible for that God? God has placed within the reader of the Bible He wrote the Bible in such a way that when we see the mistakes of David They kind of are, you know shadowed by his exploits because of his repented spirit To the point when we read about David we understand that he made mistakes, but we still admire David You know, we want to be like David even though he was like like a screw-up in some instances He made a lot of mistakes But yet we look at him we still think of him as a sweet psalmist of his room We think of a mighty man David's mighty man We want to be just like David mighty like David even to the point where you know Jesus in the New Testament refers to himself as the son of David Why because he was a repentant type of a person. He loved the Lord He got right with God Saul on the other hand did not okay Go to chapter 16 and we're done And this is his demise look at chapter 16 verse 13 It says then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren referring to David and the spirit of The Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Rhema, but the spirit of the Lord Departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him Evil spirit from the Lord troubled him and Saul's servant said unto him behold now an evil spirit from God troubleth thee So what do we see here? We see that God's favor is no longer on day on Saul In fact, it's on David now, okay, and we see that he goes through the witch at Endor for counsel Okay now go to chapter 31. I Thought that was gonna be the last scripture, but this is sorry first Samuel 31 For sure for sure. This is the last one I'm looking at my notes here, right? So man, I mean it begins to spiral out of control like things go downhill quick lack of faith Disobedience with no repentance the spirit of the Lord departs from him He begins to make these outlandish oaths and what is that? What is the last thing he does to just what's the what's the straw? That breaks the camel's back going to the witch at Endor to some necromancer palm reader To find out what God You know and look he's not seeking the Lord himself because if he was really seeking the Lord the Lord will make himself found of him He's seeking the Lord to see what he can get out of God He's seeking the Lord because he wants to win the battle. He's seeking the Lord because he doesn't want to die he's not seeking the Lord because he loves the Lord and That is the defining factor there folks You see sometimes if we're not careful we seek God for what we can get out of God really we should be seeking God Because he's God He's our Heavenly Father. He's our Savior because we love him. We want to learn from his word We want to be filled with the Spirit We want to live a life that's pleasing unto him and those other things They come attached when we seek the Lord when we draw nigh unto God, but you know if we seek God as a genie Just to see how many? Bread and fish he can multiply You know we're not gonna be blessed of the Lord and God's not gonna make himself found of us We need to make sure that we're seeking God for the right reasons, okay? Chapter 31 verse 1 so now he's done right. I mean the condemnation has been set on his life God is like he's becoming a castaway. He is a castaway and look folks think about this God is basically saying I'm gonna kill Saul Not I'm gonna let him grow old and die of COVID-19 when he's 80 No he's like I'm gonna I'm gonna kill you and I'm gonna kill you at the hand of your enemy And you know what that enemy is gonna abuse you It's not very kind But you know what it's justified though, right? Because what do we see when Saul dies I mean they decapitate his head They pin his body up against the wall they desecrate his body like majorly But it shows you that that's how mad God was He's gone so far from God that he was just gonna allow him to die a dishonorable death now Saul saved Amen, and that aspect of saw the inward man that loved the Lord that wanted to do right. I'm sure he's glad Just as Paul in the New Testament said oh wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me from this body of death? I'm sure Saul's in heaven right now thinking. I'm glad that I died To be separated from that old man who disobeyed God And look folks. That's what all of our inward man says The inward man does not like our flesh at all You understand? Now look at chapter 31 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 upon saw and upon sons and the Philistines slew Jonathan Abinadab Melchizedek saw his son. So man he loses his children and The battle went sore against Saul and the archers hit him and he was sore wounded of the archers. Hey, the end is coming Then said Saul to his armor bearer draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith lest these Uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me. So he's telling his armor bearer Hey, you need to kill me because I know what these guys are gonna do to me But his armor bearer would not for he was sore afraid Therefore Saul took a sword and fell upon it So the end of Saul's life basically defines him perfectly what a selfish man Does anybody who commits suicide is a selfish person? right You know, especially if you have children you have a wife or how about this you're a king Who has responsible for? Multitudes of families and children and people he goes out he goes out. He goes out as a coward You know and slays himself falls upon his own sword And look what it says in verse 5 and when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead He fell likewise upon his sword and died with him What does it show us, you know when you get away from God you always take someone with you You know what and sometimes they follow your footsteps to the point where they died just like you He fell upon his sword and one of the what does armor bearer do is like man? I'm a fall likewise upon the sword because that's his leader What does that tell us it tells us that you know, if someone's always watching we always have influence over someone And we need to be careful because sometimes people will do likewise You know, hey if we draw the sword other people will draw it likewise. Amen We fight against the the devil we fight against the the world Others will do likewise, but in like manner if you fall upon your own sword others will do it. Likewise And even at the end of his life, even though the Spirit of God had departed from him He still had influence and guess what? He's screwed up his own influence Even to the point that he just took one more life with him because of it This was his demise What do we learn from the life of Saul and obviously, you know, that's the end There is nothing necessarily There's not a good note that we can leave off when it comes to Saul But the byword and the proverb that we can learn from him is this is they hey, we're all gonna make mistakes But it's important that when we make them that we own up to those mistakes We take responsibility. We repent we get right with God immediately So that God can continue to use us how did David die He died an old man. He died the way everyone wants to die, right? Like an old person surrounded by his family Just that's it I mean This guy was responsible for killing a lot of people and let me know the Bible says if you live by the sword you die By the sword he lived by it and he didn't die by it Right He shed a lot of blood and how did he end his life in bed? Old man surrounded by his family just giving some instructions before he goes home to be with the Lord and that's how he died You know, why is that because he was a good repenter. That's why because he still loved the Lord He was a man after God's own heart. Whereas Saul was a man who left God's heart Forsook it you can go very far as a Christian even though if you're not perfect You can go very far as long as you're a person after his own heart Amen, and that's what we can learn from the life of Saul as far as in our word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word and Lord, thank you for the life of Saul and thankful that he's in heaven today, and I'm sure he's glad that he's he's separated from that wretched man that destroyed so many lives Lord and thankful for his example thankful because we've used him so many times as an example of someone who was who was saved even though they got so far from God and he's proof that That salvation cannot be lost even when you commit some of the most Wicked sins and God I pray that you help us to learn from him help us to learn from his beginning How he started help us to to to apply those attributes on those characteristics in a spiritual sense to our lives so we can succeed And and and do great exploits for you And I pray that you'd help us to give heed to his mistakes and his sins that we would avoid those mistakes Help us to do so Lord. We love you so much, and we thank you pray these things in Jesus name. Amen