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Collierville First Baptist Church
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Well, I'm glad that you're here tonight and we're we're the last chapter of first Samuel for Samuel chapter thirty one.
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I've entitled this chapter life and death life and death.
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If you had an opportunity to pick out what you wanted on your epitaph on your tombstone what would it be? Think about that.
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I think that Saul's epitaph could be found in words that he said I think it's in chapter twenty six of this of first Samuel where he he told David I have played the fool.
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And for a man to say that about himself I played the fool.
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I hope and pray that nobody in this room will come to the end of your life and say to someone else I've played the fool.
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So remember the last time we were here we talked about it's like first Samuel is like you got David and Saul. It's like you go to a movie and there's two screens and you got one movie playing on this screen another movie playing on this screen.
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David and Saul Saul and David David and Saul and last last week we talked about the fact that David had signed up to fight with the Philistines against the Israelites and they turned him back. The Philistine generals and leaders didn't want David and his men to fight with them because they didn't trust them.
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And so they sent them away and they went to Ziklag. Remember Ziklag and when they got there it had been burned to the ground and the Amalekites had taken all their family their wives and their kids away. David and his men didn't know what had happened to their wives and kids.
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And that David's men were was ready to stone him. You know that. But the Bible it says it's just a marvelous statement.
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It says that David strengthened himself in the Lord and the first thing he did the very first thing he did is he called for the priest a by a thar and he asked a by a thar to find out from the Lord what he should do.
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And the Lord said go take care of the Amalekites. All of your wives and your kids are okay and they brought them back and David gives gifts to the leaders of the southern kingdom of Judah which is it's really God setting up David to begin his kingship. As being king over the southern kingdom of Judah not all of Israel that would come later. Okay.
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So it's all setting up and God sovereign hand is over all of this. Okay.
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Now notice in verse 1 of 1 Samuel 31 now the Philistines were fighting against Israel.
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Remember this is a battle that David said he wanted to fight in but they wouldn't let him. I don't believe he ever intended to fight against Israel.
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They probably did the right thing not trusting David and his men. Okay.
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And so they were fighting against Israel and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
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Now the Philistines attacked deep into Jewish territory and because of it's rebellion against the Lord Saul was not ready for battle.
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Now remember what Saul had done. He had instead of turning to the Lord and the Lord is like the Lord had just cut off all contact with Saul.
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And Saul turned to the witch of Indore and she summoned up Samuel from the dead.
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And I really believe it was Samuel and Samuel gave a word of prophecy. I've never heard of a demon giving a word of prophecy that actually came true.
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And he had a word of prophecy and he told here's what Samuel told Saul. You and your sons and the nation of Israel are going to be defeated in battle against the Philistines.
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And can you imagine what that did to Saul?
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He was a million miles away from God.
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He just found out that he's going to die.
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That his sons are going to die and that his army is going to be defeated by their mortal enemies the Philistines.
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Now Saul was gripped by fear.
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Look at 1 Samuel 28 verses 1 to 5.
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Now it came about in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war to fight against Israel.
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And Achish said to David, "Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men." And David said to Achish, "Very well, you shall know what your servant can do."
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So Achish said to David, "Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life." We talked about how David, when he went into Philistine territory to live for those 16 months, he stepped out of the will of God.
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I tell you what, if you're a believer and you're living outside the will of God, you're going to be a miserable cookie. I promise you.
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Now Samuel was dead verse 3, "And all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah, his own city.
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And Saul had removed from the land those who were mediums and spiritus, except evidently the which of Endor."
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Verse 4, "So the Philistines gathered together and came and camped in Shunom. And Saul gathered all Israel together and they camped in Gilboa. And when Saul saw the camp of the Philistine," look at this, "he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly."
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Now, instead of taking his fear to the Lord, Saul made things worse
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by seeking the voice of a witch.
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Now, here's what's interesting.
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In 1 Samuel 28, 19, Samuel said to Saul that he was going to die and the army would be defeated. In 1 Samuel 31 verse 1, that's the next day.
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I won't show you that there's a chapter in between, but you need to know that from 1 Samuel 28 verse 19 to 1 Samuel 31, 1 is one day.
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One day.
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So my question is, did Saul's army see the fear in the eyes of their king, King Saul?
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And if they did, did it cause them to lose heart?
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I tell you, it would cause me to lose heart if I'm in an army and the leader of my army is shaken with fear. That wouldn't necessarily buoy my spirits and give me a desire to charge hell with a water pistol, would it?
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So, notice in page 2, the death of Saul's sons. So the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchuschua, the sons of Saul.
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Tragically, Saul's sons was caught up in the wash of God's judgement against Saul.
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Have you ever heard somebody say,
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"Well, my sin is only going to hurt me." Right? You've heard that. I know you've heard it.
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Can I tell you that as a lie of the enemy?
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If you choose to rebel against God, if you choose to step outside of his will and do things that are contrary to what the Bible teaches, I promise you it's not just going to affect you, it's going to affect other people, it's going to affect your family, it's going to affect your friends, it can even affect a nation as it did with the nation of Israel right here.
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So, I love Jonathan.
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Jonathan was David's best friend, remember?
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And Jonathan died heroically, I guarantee you. He died fighting for Israel, he died fighting alongside his dad, and he died fighting for his God.
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Jonathan, but he's dead.
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Malchai Shua is dead. Abinadab is dead.
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So, basically, God cleared the deck of any possible descendants of Saul who could become the next king of Israel, except one, Ishpa says.
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Now, that would occur later in 2 Samuel chapter 2 verse 8 through chapter 4 verse 12. You read the story of the last son of Saul who was defeated and died, and David became king of all Israel at that point.
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Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, all right? The tragic end of Saul, look at verses 3 to 6.
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The Bible says the battle went heavily against Saul,
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and the archers hit him, and he was badly wounded by the archers.
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And Saul said to his armor bearer, "Draw your sword and pierce me through with it.
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Otherwise, these uncircumcised will come and pierce me through and make sport of me." Listen, the Philistines were known for being absolutely cruel and bloodthirsty.
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And I think Saul was probably correct in assuming that if they found an ounce of life in King Saul, they would have really tortured him, and he didn't want that to happen. So he asked his armor bearer, "Pierce me through.
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Kill me before they can get to me." Okay?
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Notice what happens here, "But his armor bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid.
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So Saul took his sword and fell on it."
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So the armor bearer would not finish Saul off.
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So Saul took his own sword, and he fell on his own sword and killed himself,
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rather than allow the Philistines to torture him and make sport of him.
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Notice verse 5, "When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead,"
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and you remember that statement right there. "When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his own sword and died with him." So the armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, and the armor bearer took his sword, and he fell on his own sword and killed himself. Verse 6, "The Saul died with his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men on that day together."
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What a sad picture that is, right?
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Now Saul's life did not start out like this.
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You know what Samuel said about Saul?
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Samuel said that he was the anointed of God.
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He was the anointed of God before David was the anointed of God.
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And Saul was handsome. He was a whole head taller than anybody, any other man in Israel.
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He had all the marks of a great leader. He started out good, but didn't end well for him, did he?
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Little by little, he allowed compromise to worm its way into his heart and his life.
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As a result, he descended into weakness and wickedness. By the way, can I tell you that if you or I, if we choose to compromise our faith, compromise our biblical convictions slowly but surely, slowly but surely,
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compromise will result in our weakness and our own wickedness.
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The Bible says you reap what you sow. It's the law of sowing and reaping.
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So when Saul died, interestingly, he was only a short distance from Ramah where he had been crowned the king of Israel.
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Spiritually, however, he might as well have been on another planet.
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That's how far he had descended away from God.
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So 1 Samuel 26, verse 21, he had said to David, "Behold, I have played the fool and have committed a serious error."
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I've got a little quote here I want to read to you from J. Sidlow Baxter about what it means to play the fool.
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J. Sidlow Baxter said, "A man plays the fool when he neglects his godly friends as Saul neglected Samuel."
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A man plays the fool when he goes on enterprises for God before God has sent him as Saul did.
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A man plays the fool when he disobeys God even in seemingly small matters as Saul at first did.
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For such disobedience nearly always leads on to worse default.
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A man plays the fool when he tries to cover up his disobedience to God by religious excuses as Saul did.
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To obey is better than sacrifice.
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A man plays the fool when he tries to persuade himself that he's doing the will of God as Saul did.
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Saul tried to persuade himself when all the time deep in his heart that he knew otherwise. A man plays the fool when he allows some jealousy or hatred to master and enslave and deprave him as Saul did toward David.
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A man plays the fool when he knowingly fights against God
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as Saul did in hunting David to save his own face. A man plays the fool when he turns from God,
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from the God he has grieved and seeks an alternative in spiritism
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and trafficked with spirits in the beyond.
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The end of all these ways of sin and folly is moral and spiritual suicide.
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We can only finish any such downgrade course with the pathetic groan of Saul.
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I have played the fool.
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Saul chose that life.
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You can choose how you want to live your life. You can choose how you want to end your life.
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You can choose the legacy that you want to leave your family and your friends and your community. You can choose that.
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Saul chose to live the way he lived.
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Nobody made him didn't. Nobody twisted his arms.
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He couldn't say the devil made me do it. Just like we can't say the devil makes us do things that we don't want to do.
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I have played the fool.
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Look at verse 3.
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Imagine on Mount Gilboa all the dead bodies.
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All of Saul's army was killed. His sons were killed. He was killed. His armor bearer died.
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But the saddest thing is this.
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In the midst of Saul dying, he never cried out to God.
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There's no evidence they never cried out to God.
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He didn't say, "Oh, God, forgive me."
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He didn't even say, "Oh, God, help me."
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He didn't say, "Oh, God, protect me."
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God was not even in his vocabulary at that point.
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That's how far we can go if we choose a life of compromise
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that ultimately leads to weakness and wickedness.
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Jesus said, "If any man wishes to come after me,
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let him deny himself, take him as cross daily, follow me." That's a verse that is etched in my heart.
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I tell you, if you want to live in such a way that you can have a wonderful epitaph on your tombstone and leave a great legacy to your family, just live out Luke 9.23.
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"If any man wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me."
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It's not complicated, but it is costly.
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Because every day you and I live, we have a bucket load of decisions we have to make.
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Am I going to watch this or am I not going to watch this?
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Am I going to look at this filth on my phone or am I not going to look at this filth on my phone?
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Am I going to say this or am I not going to say this? Am I going to go there? Am I not going to go there?
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Am I going to encourage my spouse or am I not going to encourage my spouse?
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So many decisions we make every day.
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We have an opportunity to please the Lord or to displease the Lord.
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We're cutting a groove in our heart and a groove in our lives when we make those kinds of decisions.
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I hope and pray that you and I make good, solid decisions, that honor and glorify the Lord, and that groove gets deeper and wider and everything in our life, all the decisions just fall into that groove
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that we've created in our hearts and lives where we want to obey God. We want to please God.
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You know, many people start off right with God,
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but they don't end up the way they started.
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F.B.M.I.R. observed, listen, "It is a very solemn thought.
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No career could begin with fair, brighter prospects than Saul had,
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and none could close in more absolute midnight of despair, and yet such a fate may befall us unless we watch, pray, and walk humbly with our God."
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Oh, that's so true.
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In 2 Samuel, chapter 1, verses 4 to 10, just flip over to 2 Samuel, chapter 1, just a minute. There's an alternate version of the death of Saul.
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I'm going to read it to you.
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So this Amalekite came into camp with David.
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And David said to him, "How did things go? Please tell me." And he said, "The people have fled from battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead, and Saul and Jonathan, his son, are dead also." Can you imagine how that broke David's heart?
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So David said to the young man who told him, "How do you know that Saul and Jonathan are dead?" The young man who told him, said, "By chance, I happen to be on Mount Gilboa, and behold Saul was leaning on his spear, and behold the chariots and the horsemen were pursuing him closely.
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When he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me, and he said, "Here I am." And he said to me, "Who are you?" And I answered him, "I am an Amalekite."
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Then he said to me, "Please stand beside me and kill me, for agony has seized me, because my life still lingers in me." So I stood beside him and killed him, because I knew that he could not live after he had fallen, and I took the crown which was on his head, and the bracelet which was on his arm, and I brought them here to my Lord.
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Now, is that a contradiction or a fabrication?
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I tell you what I think it is.
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It's a fabrication.
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This young man, because we just read
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that when the armor bear saw that he was what? Dead.
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Armor bear fell on his own sword.
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And so now this Amalekite, who was a mortal enemy of Israel himself,
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came to camp with this story, and here's what I think he had in his mind. I think that he had it in his mind, man David is going to give me some kind of reward,
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because I killed his enemy, Saul.
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Well, he got a reward all right.
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David took his life.
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David wouldn't put his hand on God's anointed. He had several opportunities to kill Saul himself, but he never took advantage of it, because he respected God's anointed.
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And here this Amalekite comes into camp with a swagger.
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I kill Saul.
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Here's the bracelet he had on his arm. Here's the crown he had on his head.
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Now look at verse 7.
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"When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley
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with those who were beyond the Jordan
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saw that the men of Israel had fled
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and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. Then the Philistines came and lived in them.
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The victory of the Philistines was so overwhelming
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that even those on the other side of the valley from Mount Gilboa and those who were on the other side of the Jordan,
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the wrong side of the Jordan,
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they fled in terror before the Philistines."
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See, Saul's rebellion affected a whole nation.
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Can I tell you this?
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There's a lot of rebellion in America.
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I'm telling you folks, it's affecting our entire nation. It's infecting our entire nation also.
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You've got people that are supposed to be intelligent, they're supposed to be leaders, and they can't figure out who a woman is or who a man is.
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Did they never take PE?
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Did they never take biology?
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No, it doesn't fit their narrative.
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And we've got people in America who think
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that embracing Islam is the kind thing to do.
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Can I tell you, it's a stupid thing to do.
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If you were to read the Koran
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and you would see what it says to do with people who are "infidels," that would be me and you.
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You wouldn't be embracing this stuff. Think about the move to socialism.
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Show me anywhere in the world where socialism is. Do you know the pilgrims tried socialism when they first arrived in America? Seriously, they tried socialism.
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It failed miserably, and they junk socialism.
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I'm telling you, we can't control what everybody does, but we can control what we do.
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You can walk out of this room tonight and you can decide,
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"I'm going to be committed to Christ.
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I'm not going to compromise my faith. I'm not going to compromise the Word of God. I have biblical convictions, and I'm going to stand by those convictions even if I have to pay a heavy cost for it."
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That's what got Israel in trouble.
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That's why all this stuff we're reading is happening. Look at verse 7 again.
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"So now the Philistines are living in the cities of the Jews who have fled."
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They're eating their food.
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They're under their roofs when it's raining.
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Let me tell you something.
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When spiritual leaders fail, oh my goodness, it is like a freight train coming down the track.
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Now listen, the Bible is very clear.
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In the New Testament church,
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if you are a spiritual leader in the New Testament church, you have a huge responsibility.
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In fact, 1 Timothy and Titus says you are to live beyond reproach.
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You'll be a godly man because so much hinges on it. Hey look, you've seen it, I've seen it. You've seen spiritual leaders fail before. I've seen spiritual leaders fail before.
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The ripple effect of spiritual failure among a leader in a church is enormous.
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How many teenagers, how many young people
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have bought into the lives of the enemy because a spiritual leader failed them? The Bible says, "Who much is given, much is expected."
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Look on page 4, verses 8-10. Look what the Philistines did.
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It came about on the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain and they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They cut off his head, stripped off his weapons, and sent them throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people.
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They put his weapons in the temple of Ashtaroth.
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They fastened his body to the wall of Beshan.
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Saul's tragic death and his tragic fall from grace
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gave an opportunity for the enemies of the Lord to disgrace his name and to mock the living God.
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You know what I've prayed, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart,
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I've asked the Lord, "Lord, if you ever see that I'm about to do something to bring shame or reproach on your name, would you just please take my life before I do it?"
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I'm not trying to be super spiritual when I pray that.
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I would rather die than bring shame or reproach upon the one who went to the cross and shed his blood for my sins.
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Look at 1 Samuel 31 verses 11 to 13.
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Now remember, here's where we are. Beshan, the body and the weapons of Saul and his three sons are hanging on the wall.
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By the way, what the Philistine did to them was ultimate humiliation.
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Now look at this.
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Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men rose and walked all night
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and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beshan, and they came to Jabesh, which is a part of Israel, and burned them there. They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days.
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These guys are my heroes.
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Can you imagine walking all night, coming into enemy territory,
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to take the bodies of the slain Saul and his three sons
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and take them back to Jabesh Gilead, give them a proper burial, to fast and mourn over them. I mean, these guys were valiant.
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They were ready to do the tough stuff.
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But I want you to understand, Saul is gone,
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but God has a man in the wings waiting to be the next king of Israel.
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Just like God has another pastor ready to step behind a pulpit and leave this church and preach the Word.
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I believe the comparison is there, folks.
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God's never without a man. You know that, don't you?
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He always has somebody in the wings.
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When Moses was dying, God had who? Joshua.
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He had Joshua.
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And we could go on and on and on, and Paul had Timothy and the guys he'd been mentoring and discipling to lead the church.
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Now, the brave men of Jabesh Gilead must have remembered how Saul had delivered their city from the Ammonites, one of the first actions of King Saul when he became king.
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You can read about it in 1 Samuel 11, 1 through 11.
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Now, when David heard of Saul's death, he didn't rejoice at all.
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In fact, he mourned, and he composed a song in honor of Saul and Jonathan. Have you heard about these songs that husbands will get somebody to compose for their wives to get out of the doghouse?
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Seriously.
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There are people that compose songs with the wife's name in it woven in there, and her eyes get big as a saucer, she starts crying, and she hugs her husband. He's out of the doghouse.
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But I want to tell you, this is not one of those. This came from the heart of King David. It's called the Song of the Bow.
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Take your Bible, look at 2 Samuel chapter 1, verses 19 to 27. Let's read the Song of the Bow.
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It's about Saul and Jonathan and the other two sons.
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"Your beauty, O Israel, is slain on your high places.
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How have the mighty fallen?" That's repeated, I think, three times in this song.
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"Tell it not in gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice. O mountains of Gilboa, let not dew or rain beyond you, nor fields of offerings. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty.
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Saul and Jonathan, beloved and pleasant in life, and in their death they were not parted. They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions. O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your peril. How have the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle? Jonathan is slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan.
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You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful than the love of a woman.
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How have the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished?" The song of the bow. Now listen, David had every right to harbor bitterness and hatred for Saul, but he did. He did. Look at this beautiful song he wrote. Notice how he mourned for King Saul and Jonathan and Malachi Shua and the other son of Saul. He mourned for them. You know, one of the hardest things that we have to deal with in our lives as believers is the problem of unforgiveness.
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We have people that hurt us. They say unkind things about us. They do unkind things to us.
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And we find it hard to forgive. I tell you, we need to remember what the New Testament teaches. Why should we forgive people who hurt us? Because God forgave us.
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We don't have any right to withhold forgiveness from someone who hurt us when God has graciously forgiven us.
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I believe that's one of the reasons that so many believers are walking in defeat. That one sin right there. That may be the one sin that's holding back revival from the church.
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We ought to follow the example of David.
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We ought to forgive. We ought to drain our hearts and our souls of the poison of unforgiveness and bitterness and hatred and all that kind of stuff. We've got to drain the swamp.
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I told someone, I counseled somebody recently and I was talking about the importance of forgiving.
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And I said it's like it's like flushing a commode. You flush a commode to get rid of junk, right? And that's what you got to do as a believer. You got to do that. You got to flush the commode, get rid of the poison that will absolutely destroy your lives and hold you back for the best God has in store for you.
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And I told him, I said, listen, every time you hear a commode flush, you remember to get rid of that junk in your heart.
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Pretty good reminder, isn't it?
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Okay, moving right along.
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So I came to the end of this and I wanted to just give some lessons from this.
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Lesson number one, the truth about death. Look at second Samuel 1414. For we will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.
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Yet God does not take away life, but plans way so that the banished one will not be cast out from him.
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Romans 6 23 for the wage of sin is death.
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Free gift of God's eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Hebrews 9 27 and in as much as it does appointed for men to die once. And after this comes judgment.
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Saul's death serves as a clear reminder that death is coming for all of us. Nobody in this room, nobody in the world. If Jesus Terry's is going to escape this world without going through the portals of death.
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Nobody.
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You say, well, I don't want to think about that.
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We need to think about that.
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You know why you need to think about it.
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You need to think about it so you can plan.
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How you want to die.
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You can die.
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As a loser or you could die as a winner.
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You can.
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And you have to decide.
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How you want to die.
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The facts of life. Here's another lesson.
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I just shared it. We could die like a loser. We die like a winner.
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A lack of commitment to Christ. This is what we learn from Saul. A lack of commitment to Christ will always lead to a life of compromise which leads to a life.
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Of misery.
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On the other hand, when a believer is committed to Christ and lives to please him, death is a victory. Look at Psalm 116.
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15.
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Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones.
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Philippians 1 21 for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain and the word gain there in the Greek language. Is a business term. It means make a profit.
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Listen.
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How you live determines how you will die.
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Now here's a third lesson. Make your life count.
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Make it count.
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Decide tonight what you want your legacy to be.
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Make your life count for God. Don't waste your life. Listen. Don't waste your life on the frivolous things of this world.
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Don't die like a loser.
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Die like a winner.
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2 Timothy 4 6 through 8.
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Paul is within a very short period of time of dying.
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He says for I'm already being poured out as a drink offering.
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The time of my departure has come.
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I hope everybody in this room can say this when you come to your deathbed.
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I hope you can say I have fought the good fight.
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I fought the good fight.
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I have finished the course.
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I didn't quit back there.
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200 meters from the finish line.
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I finished the course. I ran through the tape.
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I have kept the faith. I hope to pray that everyone in this room can stand before Jesus.
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And have him say well done. You are faithful sir. Because you kept the faith.
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In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. Which the Lord the righteous judge will war to me on that day. And not only to me.
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But also to all.
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Who have loved his appearing.
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Make your life count.
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Isn't it sad.
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The way Saul ended his life.
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Isn't his own epitaph that he said of himself. Heartbreaking.
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I have played.
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The food.
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Let's pray.
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Heavenly Father we love you.
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We thank you Father for your grace and your mercy. For the.
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The lessons we've learned from this. From this story tonight we thank you for the lessons we've learned from the life of David.
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And Lord I pray in the name of Jesus that we would learn these lessons well and that we would apply them to our lives and I pray that when every person in this room comes to the end of their lives.
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That we would die like a winner.
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In Jesus name.
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Amen.
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God bless you.
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