[0:00] I'm going to sing some verses from Psalm 33, Psalm 33, from verse 10 to 16, five stanzas.
[0:15] From verse 10, God does the counsel bring to naught, which heathen book do take, and what the people do devise of none effect, does make.
[0:26] O, but the counsel of the Lord doth stand forever sure, and of his heart the purposes from age to age endure, that nation blessed is whose God Jehovah is, and those a blessed people are, whom for his heritage he chose.
[0:46] The Lord from heaven sees, and beholds all sons of men full well. He views all from his dwelling place, that in the earth do dwell.
[0:58] He forms their hearts alike, and all their doings he observes. Great hosts, save not a king, much strength, no mighty man he serves.
[1:10] And so on, these five stanzas from verse 10, God doth the counsel bring to naught, which heathen folk do take. God doth the counsel bring to naught, which heathen folk do take.
[1:37] to naught, which heathen folk doShare. A king, much strength, no mighty man he find. Hallelujah, thank you, God doth the Jabezen. Christmas of the Excuse G2630. O, dear behavior duarest God doth the heed. Jesus, there shall come come, and bowls some hope, and of His glory be sweet, and of His glory be hazards youطThere will be. guitar solo for the Son of God doth the Holykeit, and of His glory, and Thou strendo this place.
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[2:01] Thourah st's a large worship willctw arr inception, and all theatched counsel of the four houses of.... Aaaaaah the church with ...ственand without the Lily山 by ... Does not forever should And all his heart What further forces From which to which can do Thou nation blessed Is this God Jehovah is the cross A blessed people And I look for His attitude
[3:05] The Lord From all hands That beholds All sides So man And full well He used all From his dwelling place That in the year To dwell He follows His dead hearts At light and joy Their pure Is the Of stairs Great Lord
[4:07] Still No Dying The Strength No Mighty Heart Reserves Can we turn For a short while To the passage That we were Reading The first book Of Samuel And Chapter 15 We'll read that Verse 22 For rebellion Is as the sin Of witchcraft And stubbornness Is as iniquity And idolatry Because thou hast Rejected the word Of the Lord He also He hath Also Rejected thee From being king And Saul Said unto Samuel
[5:07] I have sinned For I have transgressed The commandment Of the Lord And thy words Because I feared The people And obeyed Their voice We have been Looking at The life Of Samuel And Because The focus Has been On Samuel Inevitably We found That His life And the life Of king Saul Were Inextricably Liked together And There might have been Then a tendency For us To focus on Saul As The most Important Of these characters
[6:08] But clearly Scripture Doesn't mean us To do that The previous chapter We've Omitted To look at But that's not To say that There's nothing In that chapter That is of Importance But it doesn't Feature Samuel Samuel Again Vanishes into The background For a short While But in that Chapter We notice Jonathan Saul's Son Is Highlighted For his Fearlessness And for his Spirituality Which I think Comes to the Fall again When King David Comes to The throne Or when David comes to Take the place Of his father An example of that Is found in Verse 6 Where we read
[7:09] Jonathan said To the young man That bear his Armour Come and let us Go over Into the garrison Of those These uncircumcised It may be That the lord Will work For us For there is No restraint To the lord To save By many Or by few And Jonathan There is Showing How he Regards The lord And the Understanding That he has Of the place That the lord Has given To his people Israel The Understanding That we are Meant to Gain From that Statement Is that He is That what Makes the Difference as Far as the People of God are Concerned Are not Their number But their God And it is The power Of God Utilised
[8:09] On their Behalf That is All important And It is also Interesting In that chapter Which you can Read for yourself Because A fair Amount Happens In it That highlights The way Saul Is on This Spiral Dirtwards How Jonathan Appears to be The one Who is As you would Expect Saul To be Saul is Meant to be The military Leader The king Of Israel The one Who will Be the Spiritual Guide of Israel And yet When he Should be Standing out As such He Allows Jonathan To take The centre Stage So at The beginning Of the
[9:10] Chapter Dale Ralph Davis Makes this Observation He summarises It better Than I Could Saul Is sitting When Jonathan Moved And he Also makes This Point Which is An interesting One and I Believe An accurate One He Saul At that Point Identifies The priest To To stand With him And to To be His Spiritual Guided I suppose And so he Would Identify Ahiah The son Of Ahitub And he Is alongside Saul And he Is clearly The spiritual Guide that He has
[10:10] But it's It's Quite This is what Dale Ralph Davis Is Why Introduce This Information That is So much Not just A chronology But A reminder To us Of his Forbearers And it Takes you Right back To Eli's Sons And their Sons And how While they Belonged to The priesthood It was a Priesthood That God Had judged And a Priesthood That God Said would Come to An end And the Associations They had Discreased A Disgraced Priesthood Of the Line of Eli Where You remember When the Two sons Of Eli Were killed One of Their wives Bore a
[11:10] Son And she Fell dead And the Name that Was given To To the Son was Ichabod The glory Has departed And that Is the Priesthood That God Had judged And said That it Was a Line that God Had rejected So here We have In chapter 14 This alliance That again Cements in Your mind The trajectory Of King Saul That He lacked Wisdom And he Lacked Prudence In not Only In his Choice Of action But also His Choice Of inaction And later On We see How Saul Is going To Offer a Vow Which is Imprudent Because The vow That he Offers Results
[12:10] In Jonathan His Son Being Under God's Curse Because Saul Says That Nobody Was to Eat For For a Certain Time It was That day From the Morning To the Evening It was Lacking Wisdom Because Jonathan Suffered Because of That And not Only Was The Curse Imprudent Because he Didn't know Who would Come under The sway Of his Influence But also How How Inappropriate It was To send His men Of war Into battle And deny Them Sustanance Because You can Imagine For yourself How They Involved Themselves In Hand To Hand Combat And it Wasn't A simple They Didn't Sit On a Hillock Fighting A Rifle It
[13:11] Was Hand To Hand And it Was Very Very Demanding Physically When they Engaged With the Enemy And yet They Were Deprived Of Food And They Weren't Allowed To Taste Of It And Then That Again Led Them Into Sin Because We Read In chapter 14 Again That The Soldiers Took The Beasts Off And They Slew Them And Consumed Them And They Were Condemned Because Of That Because They Were Consuming Animals That Still Had The Blood In Them They Hadn't Been properly So All Of These Things Are Sort Of Lining Up Condemning Saul But It's Just An Introduction To What We See Taking Place At The Beginning Of Chapter 15 Where When Saul
[14:11] Was Anointed King When He Was Established Before All The Nation He Was Told In No Uncertain Terms That He Was There To To Serve God And To Serve The People Of God And With His Elevation To Power And To Privilege It Brought Into His Experience The Greater Necessity To Live A Life Of Obedience Obedience And To God And Accountability To God And The Cost Of That Should Have Been Very Much On His Mind I Don't Think We We We Take To Heart How Important It Is For Us Whatever Role We Occupy As Christians
[15:12] When God Requires Obedience Of Us The Disobedience That Flies In The Face Of God's Command Brings His Displeasure To Bear Upon Us As Individuals But The More Onerous Responsibility He Has Given To Us The More Disobedience Is Reflected In The Displeasure Of God So So if We For For Example If We Are Individuals Our Sin Is Individual Sin It May Impact On On On On Others If Our Sin Is Sin As A Parent And It Influences And Affects Our Children Our Marital Circumstances
[16:12] If We Are In Office In The Church Our Sins They Affect The Role That We Have And The Influence That We Have Within That Role And The Disobedience To God That Is Seen In Our Lives Affects That Role And Affects The Church That We Serve Whether We Office Bearers Or Ministers Or Leaders In Whatever Capacity We Serve And The Problem We Have With Saul Is Not That He Was An Out And Out Rebel Which He Wasn't At This Point Because He Pays Lip Service And This Is Down For He Pays Lip Service To God And That's What He Does Again And Again As One Of The Devised Put And I Think It's A Concern Paul And Saul
[17:13] Is Seen As Somebody Who Was Semi Religious Because His Religiosity Is Seen Throughout His Role You know Last time We Saw How He Called For Sacrifices To To Be To Be And Here Again His Religiosity Is Not Reflected In The Genuine Relationship That He Should Have With God There's This Fear For Description Given By One Who Which Not Just Speaks Of Saul But Many Christians To This Day He Knows And Believes Too Much And Too Little He Knows And Believes Too Much And Too Little They Have Too Little Gospel In Them To Make Them Blessed
[18:13] In The Lord And Enough Perhaps To Make Them Ashamed And Miserable In The Day Of Visitation And This Is The Problem This Is The Problem You Have With Saul He Has A Knowledge Of God He Has A Knowledge Of What God Expects Of Him He Has An Understanding Of Who God Does But Yet With That Understanding He Still Goes On And Behaves As He Does And The Fact That God's Displeasure Is Experienced By He He He He He He Rather Than Retreats His Steps And Realize That He Has Done Ill He Consolidates His Position In Sin By Adding To It Now I Know That Many People Find
[19:14] It An Offense In The Sense That What What Saul The King Is Expected To Do Here Is Compared By Some To Genocide Because He Is Expected As King To Lead His Armies And To Slay The Whole Number Of The Amalekite Race Not Just Those Soldiers Who Are On The Battlefield But Their Wives And Their Children And Their Beasts Leave Nothing And People Say That Is Wrong That Is Clearly Something That Is A Little Better Than Bestial And They Wouldn't Expect God To Do It And When That Thought Comes To The Fore The
[20:14] Thought That The Amalekites Themselves Which Doesn't I Suppose Excuse This In Any Way The Fact That They Themselves Are Responsible For Activities That Are Equally Genocidal They They Too Have A Bitter Hatred Against Israel And At Every Possible Opportunity They Sorted Annihilation Their Destruction Now Doesn't As We Know Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right And Yet We Are Not In The Business Of Making Excuses For God We Are Not In The Business Of Saying Well Please Excuse My God For The Instructions He Gives The Servant We Are Not In A Position To To Challenge What God Has Commanded Because We Don't Have Access To The
[21:14] Knowledge That He Has It Might Be Simply It Is Historical Because The Amalekites During Their Lifetime In Their Enmity Against Israel Behaved So That Their Their Destruction Was Probably The Safest Root For The Israelites To Take But We're Not In A Position To Explain Why God Does What He Does But That's Not The Reason Why Saul Behaves The Way He Does It's Really A Distraction It's A Root That We Take When Trying To Analyze That We Would Excuse The Behaviour Of Saul Because The Saints Have Been Offended By What God Expected Them To Do Which Is Nonsense That's Not Why Saul Behaved The Way He Did While We Cannot Answer Every Question
[22:14] About Some Of The Direction That God Gives When He Is Dealing With The Enemies Of Israel The Peoples That Surrounded Canaan And Were In Canaan And That Were Clearly Enemies Of God And Intent Of The Destruction Of The Name Of God From The Land And God Whose Response To That Would Be To Remove Their Memory From The Land As It Is Put Elsewhere But As Far As The Role Of Saul Is Concerned He Was Given A Command And It Was Required Of Him To Obey It And He Didn't Obey It And The Reason He Didn't Obey It Was Not Because He Was Offended By What God Was Wanting Him To Do The Reason He Didn't Obey God Is Found In This Passage In His Own Selfish
[23:15] Ends In His Desire To To Satisfy His Own Selfish Lusts Or Whatever However You Would Describe It You Can Look At Verse Eight And You Read There Saul And The People Spare Dagger And The Best Of The Sheaf And Of The Oxen And Of The Fartlings And The Lambs And All That Was Good And Would Not Destroy It But Everything That Was Vile And Everything That Was Refused That They Destroyed Utterly He Didn't Feel Any Concern Over That Action He Did It Just As Happily And You And You Can You Can See Because Of The Offence That Caused The Sensibilities That He Did Not Do What God Commanded
[24:15] Now It Seems When We Come To Read Of Samuel's Response That It Is God That Discloses To Samuel What Happened We Read In Verse 10 That The Word Of The Lord Came To Samuel And It Repenteth Me That I Have Set Up Saul To Be King For He Has Turned Back From Following Me And The Section I suppose Is A section That Confuses Many Simply Because Of The Use Of The Word Repent We Understand That Repentance In Its Ordinary Uses Requires A Person To Change His Mind And Turn Back From A Course Of Action That They Had Followed Previously Now It's Not A Word That You Can Apply To
[25:15] The Lord Because When The Lord Repents In Every Location Where You Find That Description It Is Not Really A Change Of Purpose That Is Spoken Of But An Action That Indicates That The Purpose That He Me To Carry Out Comes To Pruition Comes To To Be High That Hugh Cartwright The Late Hugh Cartwright And I'm Not You Which Which Divine Which Theologian He Was Referring To But He Said That When God Was Said To Have Changed His Mind It Didn't Really Change His Mind But He Minded A Change Maybe That's Just Semantics For Some But I Think It's
[26:15] Just Showing Us How Difficult It Is For The Mind That We Possess To Try And Make Sense Of The Things That God Does Not Because They're Not Able To Be Understood But Because They're Beyond Our Ability Our Time To Understand It Is Not The Common Sense Of The Word You See Verse 29 He Says The Strength Of Israel Will Not Lie Nor Repent For He Is Not A Man That Should Repent Now God Does Not Repent In The Way Man Repents But With Regard To Saul In This Case While He Listened To The People And Gave The People What They Wanted Namely A King
[27:15] And He Gave Them A King Of Their Own Choosing A King That They Would Be Happy With Providentially He Was Overruling In That Arrangement But At The Same Time Within That Providence Whose Own Will For Them Was Being Worked Out And He Was Showing Them The Imperfection Of Their Choice And Showing Them The Lack Of Wisdom That Their Choice Brought To Light Coming Back To The Words Of Our Text Which Are Key We See There That Saul Knows What Was Expected Of Him And Yet He Decided To Do Different He Decided To Do Something Different To What God Wanted Him To Do And
[28:16] And Even Knowing That Upon Discovery Of The Grace Of God Being Made By Him Which Which Allows A person To Break The Law And Repent Of That God Understands Of Weakness He Understands Of Sinfulness He Understands That There Is The Potential For Sin In The Heart Of Every Living Human Being But There Is Also The Possibility Given To Them To Turn From That Sin To Turn From That Wrong Doing Back To The Path Of Obedience Now For Saul That Is Not The Path That He Took And I Think That's Part Of Of The Emphasis That We Have Here On
[29:16] The Repentance Of God And The Lack Of Genuine Repentance That We See Experienced In The Heart Of Saul Because When We See The Response Of Samuel To Saul His Words Are Very Severe And He Is Intolerant Of His Feeble Excuses And They Are Feeble And He Says That It Was Because He Was Afraid Of The People That He Did What He Did And Yet Up Until This Point It's The People Who Are Afraid Of Saul They Go To Battle Because They Fear The King He Exerts The Rule And Authority That God Has Given To Him Even Backing Them By By Using Samuel Which People
[30:17] Are In Holy Terror Of But He Blames The People And He Makes An Excuse Of The Fear That He Had As An Excuse For What He Did And It's It's Not Like That At All Now What They Saw The People Saw Was Not What Samuel Saw And More Importantly What God Saw We're Going To Finish Off With The Words Of Psalm 139 And You Know How That Psalm Describes To Us The Perfect Knowledge Of Of God And As God Servant As God King Saul Was At Least Familiar With It And Informed By It But We Read From Thy Spirit Whither Shall I Go From Thy Presence
[31:17] Fly I Signed I Haven't Lo Thou Art There There If In Hell I Lie And So You Know The Psalm You Know The Psalm That Describes To The Omniscience Of God The All Seeing Eye Of God Being Upon The Children Of Men At All Moments And Yet The Confession Of Verse 24 Is One I Have Transgressed The Commandment Of The Lord And Thy Words That Should Have Been The End Of It That There Should Be A Daughter Here But He Adds To It Because I Fear The People And Obey Their Voice There Is The Excuse There Is The Reason For It And When We Are Engaged In The
[32:17] Grace Of Repentance Exercising It In Our Lives It Is Never Yes I Have Sinned But There Is Always That But You Go Right Back To The Beginning Where The Sin Of Adam Was Brought To Light And Blame Was Immediate It Was The Woman That You Gave To Me This Wife That You Gave She Was Responsible She Was The One To Blame I Am Sorry But And We Are Also Guilty Of The Same Behavior When Repentance Is Appropriate And Repentance Is Not Just Appropriate But Necessary And Yet We Accompany The Words Of The Penitent
[33:17] With The Excuses That Dissipated That Destroy The Sense Of It All Together If We Are In The Same Breath Saying The Opposite Things We Can't Be Repenting We Cannot Prosper If We Seek To Cover Our Sins The Wise Man The Book Of Proverbs Said Who Can Prosper In His Ways If They Try And Cover Their Sins And Literally What We Find Here In Verse 35 We Find That Saul Is Is Condemned Because Of Samuel Is In A Different Relationship To Him By Reason Of What Saul Did And Some People Again Find
[34:18] It This Is Flying In The Face Of What Is True Literally Historically It Says Here That Samuel Came No More To See Saul Until The Day Of His Death And People Say That's Not Right And It Isn't Right In The Literal Sense But The Relationship That He Had With Saul Changed The Moment That Saul Disobeyed God Openly And When He Tried To Hide His Sin Samuel Was No Longer His Mentor No Longer His Guide It Broke His Heart It Grieved Him Deeply That This Is How Things Were God God God Had Given Another Role To Samuel Samuel Samuel Samuel Role Was Not At An End Here His Role Was To Change Just As God Said To To To
[35:18] Saul That There Was Another That Was Going To Take His Place That There Was Someone Else That God Had Prepared To Be King And Samuel Would Have A Part To Play In That His Attention Was Going To Be Diverted To Saul's Successor And The Whole Of The Life Of Saul From The Beginning From You Get To Know Them Initially Every Encounter That You Have With Him There Is Always It Doesn't You Know If You First Encounter With Saul Is When You Read The First Chapter That Mentions His Name There Is Almost A Sense Of Footboarding That Comes Along With It And Every Occasion That You Read Of From That Point On
[36:18] You Find That He Is As We As The Spirmed Spiritually And That He Is Somebody That That Is Not Fit For Purpose And The Purpose That He Had Was Given To Him By God To Rule As God's Vassal To Rule Over God's People And To Do It In The Light Of God's Word And He Did That Only When It Suited And We Can't Do That With God's Word We Can't Use What Words We Can't Pick And Choose Well We Don't Like This So We Won't Do This This Word Is This Lord His Word When It Is Applied To Us It's A Word We Need To Hear Go
[37:21] God Gary Let's just see, dear Lord, let's pray. O Lord of God, there are mysteries attached to and outworking of your providence, even when you outline for us in great detail all that is needed and the blessings that are sure to follow, and yet these blessings are seen by the natural eye as not being sufficient or not being of the sort that we would seek for ourselves, but rather that we choose other blessings as we describe them, and to take their place or to accompany them.
[38:05] There are many things that need to learn at your footstool concerning our sinful inclinations and how we need grace to keep these in check.
[38:17] We pray for your blessing on your word. We pray for your blessing on the congregation here. We are mindful of those who are of outnumbered, who are unwell at the present, and we pray for their recovery and for those for whom recovery is not possible.
[38:35] May your grace accompany them every step of their journey so that they may know that the Lord is their portion indeed. May they lie in with your will for them and be content with whatever it may be.
[38:51] Hear our prayers and petitions. Plence from sin. In Jesus' name. Amen. As I said, we're going to conclude singing from Psalm 1139.
[39:04] We're singing in Gaelic the last two verses of this psalm. Psalm 1139. The last two verses. The last two verses.
[39:43] Psalm 1140. Is this the Lord who was given, in the sight of Allah you, again, Thank you.
[40:38] Thank you.
[41:08] Thank you.
[41:38] Thank you.
[42:08] Thank you.
[42:38] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.