WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.000 Now the Philistines fought against Israel and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:23.000 ! Then the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchushua, Saul's sons. 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:33.000 The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him and he was severely wounded by the archers. 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:47.000 Then Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:55.000 But this armor bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore, Saul took a sword and fell on him. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:02.000 And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:11.000 So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer and all his men died together that same day. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:19.000 And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those who were on the other side of the Jordan, 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:25.000 saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:28.000 And the Philistines came and dwelt in them. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:39.000 So it happened the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:49.000 And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent word throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim it in the temple of their idols and among the people. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:59.000 Then they put his armor in the temple of the Ashtaroth's and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:06.000 Then when the inhabitants of Jabeth Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:14.000 all the valiant men arose and traveled all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:17.000 And they came to Jabeth and burned them there. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:26.000 Then they took their bones and buried them under the Tamarisk tree at Jabeth and fasted seven days. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:29.000 The word of God for the people of God. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.000 Thanks be to God. Please be seated. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:38.000 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Let's pray. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:55.000 Let's pray. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.000 Lord, we confess that we are unable to understand your word on our own. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:04.000 Our minds are too depraved outside of Christ without your spirit. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:08.000 Our own thoughts are too distracting. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:15.000 And your meaning, Lord, the meaning of the Holy Spirit who breathed out every word of the gospel and all of scripture. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:17.000 It's lost to us, Lord, on our own. 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:18.000 We confess this. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:23.000 And so we ask, Lord, and we pray that by your spirit you'll give us the illumination. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:24.000 You'll teach us. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:28.000 You'll help us to see what is it that your word points us to. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:32.000 What is the main point of this passage that you have before your church today? 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:36.000 Please help the preacher, Lord, to be depending on you with every word. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:41.000 Please guard the ears of the church against anything that's spoken that's not pleasing to you. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:52.000 And, Lord, though preaching happens through words and through our ears, it's really the ministry of truth by your Holy Spirit through broken vessels to broken vessels. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:54.000 And only this you can do, Lord. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:21.000 So we pray that your Holy Spirit will will be pleased, Lord, to dwell with this body that are preaching and receiving of the sermon can be an act of worship to you, that you'll be glorified, Lord, and that you'll apply this to our lives to prepare us for heaven, to warn us about the temptations and the remaining sin in our own life, and ultimately to be utterly dependent on you as our Lord and King. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:24.000 We ask this for Christ's sake. Amen. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:25.000 Amen. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:26.000 Amen. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:36.000 Well, this last chapter of 1 Samuel, chapter 31, is heavy and dark. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:43.000 I did spend quite a bit of time praying about and trying to understand what is the point of this last chapter. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.000 Why does it end this way? 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.000 And I came to this conclusion. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:52.000 You need to evaluate it for yourselves. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:59.000 The point is that we need to weigh the cost of rejecting the Lord as King. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:05.000 Weigh the cost of rejecting the Lord as King. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:10.000 I heard this preacher is a Reformed Baptist preacher in the Caribbean. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.000 And he came to this conclusion looking at scripture. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:22.000 Security, identity, and significance are the three tests of what is your true King, your true God. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:27.000 What do you look for to find your security? 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:32.000 If I put my security in anything other than God, I've rejected God as King. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.000 What do I look for for my identity? 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.000 Who am I? 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:44.000 If I'm looking to anything other than Christ, that thing is Lord of my life. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:47.000 And finally, significance. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:52.000 Am I allowing this world, society, men to tell me my significance? 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:55.000 Or am I receiving God's promises, the truth of his word? 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.000 This is your significance in life in my eyes. 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:06.000 And we ought not reject the Lord as our King in any area of life. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.000 It comes at a high cost. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:12.000 And as we walk through this tragedy, 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:15.000 Saul falling hard, 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.000 we need to weigh for ourselves as a reminder, as a warning, 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:23.000 that high cost of rejecting the Lord as King. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:28.000 And I've been praying even that maybe some who are here today, 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.000 who don't even know what I'm referring to, 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.000 what is it to have the Lord as King of your life? 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:38.000 I pray that these warnings from scripture, the Lord will, will persuade you. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.000 You don't want to be the Lord of your own life anymore. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:44.000 You want Jesus to be the King of your life. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:47.000 So even though the torn is warnings, 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:52.000 I pray that it'll do nothing but encourage you the moment that you are in Christ again, 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:55.000 or maybe for the first time as the King of your life. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:58.000 Four warnings. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:03.000 Number one, weigh the cost of rejecting the Lord as King. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.000 Those who do fall severely. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:12.000 Weigh the cost of rejecting the Lord as King, 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.000 because those who do reject them fall severely. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:17.000 Look at verse one. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:20.000 Now the Philistines fought against Israel, 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:24.000 against Israel and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.000 They fled because Saul was their King. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.000 They fled because the Lord of armies, 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.000 the Lord of hosts was not their King. 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:41.000 And they fell slain on Mount Gilboa. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:45.000 The battle is taking place on a mountain. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.000 At least that's how the narrator is painting it. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:49.000 And I think it's for a deliberate reason. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.000 Mount Gilboa means heap and bubbling. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:55.000 It's those two words put together. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.000 So like a hill and the bubbling, 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:00.000 like there's springs that come out of this flowing mountain, 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:05.000 swelling up with fresh living water flowing down. 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:08.000 And it's the irony of the setting. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:11.000 It's a mountain of life. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:16.000 And it's there were saw and Israel fall and die. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:19.000 That word fall or fell. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:24.000 It appears three times just in this closing of this passage of the first Samuel. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:27.000 It can mean a literal falling by the sword, 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:30.000 but it also has that extra weight. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:33.000 It's the downfall of a dynasty. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:36.000 Saul and each of his sons. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.000 No longer on the throne of Israel. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:43.000 The root of this word to fall is slain. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:46.000 I'm sorry, the root of the word slain. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:50.000 It's also to be profaned or pierced. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.000 It's a downfall that is disgraceful. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:55.000 It's public shame. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:58.000 And it hints at the desecration of a body. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:02.000 So by saying he was slain, this is exactly what will happen. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:06.000 It's foreshadowing what they will do to his body after he dies. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:11.000 Verse two says, then the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:13.000 and the Philistines killed each one of them. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:16.000 The battle became fierce against Saul. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.000 Now, this detail is important. 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:24.000 The archers hit him and he was severely wounded by the archers. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:25.000 It repeats it. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.000 Emphasis the Holy Spirit breathing out through the narrator who it is that 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:33.000 kills Saul or wounds him to the point that he's in retreat. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:34.000 It's the archers. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:42.000 Isn't that ironic how it's the one, Saul, who always had the spear in his hand, 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:45.000 who had tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.000 tried to pin Jonathan with his spear over and over. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:51.000 He's now the one that gets pierced. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:58.000 And that word archers, it comes from the route to throw or to shoot something. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:06.000 That same route is used to describe the law of God, the Torah, which was to be what ruled over the king of Israel. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:20.000 Saul's life had been a slow and steady trajectory of law breaking of disobedience to God's instruction, a life being shot like an arrow away from God. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.000 He took the power over the nation. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:31.000 And now he's receiving a harvest for all of his disobedience that he had been sowing along the way. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:35.000 Galatians 6, 7 warns us, do not be deceived. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:43.000 God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that he will also reap. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:51.000 Luke 14, 11, for whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:59.000 We'll read there the word that when Saul was hit, he was severely wounded in verse three, severely wounded. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:01.000 That can also be translated. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:03.000 He was greatly distressed. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:11.000 It's a picture of Saul twisting, writhing in pain and agony like a woman in labor. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:13.000 That's how that word's also used. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:22.000 It captures Saul's physical pain as well as the terror of torment on his deathbed. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:27.000 If the Lord of armies is not your king. 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:30.000 You do need to be afraid. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:33.000 You do need to retreat. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:36.000 You will live your life. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:38.000 On the run. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:46.000 But if the Lord of armies, if God himself is the king of your life, you do not need to fear. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.000 You do not retreat. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:51.000 You do not stop marching. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:55.000 You can pray in the words that were available to Saul. 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:57.000 Deuteronomy 31, 6. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:00.000 If the Lord is your king, be strong and courageous. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:03.000 Do not fear or be in dread of men. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:11.000 For it is the Lord your God who goes with you and he will not leave you nor forsake you. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:24.000 But be warned, brothers and sisters, the way, weigh the cost of rejecting the Lord as king because the downfall of that decision is is evident in Saul. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:26.000 Those who do fall severely. 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:31.000 The second warning is this way, the cost of rejecting the Lord as king. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.000 Those who do live and die in fear. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:37.000 Those who do live and die in fear. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:38.000 Look at verse four. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:43.000 Then Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and thrust me through with it. 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:44.000 Why? 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:45.000 Here's the reason. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:50.000 Lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me. 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:53.000 Literally torture me. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:55.000 That's what he's afraid of. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:56.000 What are they going to do to my body? 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:03.000 Saul, in his dying moments, is most worried now. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:14.000 Not about God, not a fear of the Lord, but of his body, the body of this life that his soul will soon drop being tortured. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:17.000 He lives and dies in fear. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:23.000 He lives and dies for this life instead of the life to come. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:30.000 Hebrews 10, 25 through 31 warns even gathered congregations in this way. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:41.000 If we send willfully to send willfully to shoot like an arrow away from God, purposefully disobeying, aiming against the target that God has set for us. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:49.000 After we have received the knowledge of the truth, we ought to have a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:52.000 God will devour his adversaries. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.000 God will not lose. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:57.000 Anyone who has rejected God's law dies. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:03.000 For fearful, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:08.000 And then we see what happens next. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:16.000 Not only did Saul live and die in fear, but the nation goes with them, starting with the person closest to him in verse four. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:21.000 His armor bearer would not kill him for he also was greatly afraid. 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:25.000 The fear of Saul spreading like a cancer now. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:34.000 And so what does Saul do is he takes matters into his own hands as was his custom. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:38.000 And he fell on his own sword. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:44.000 That's another important detail to remember in the next chapter. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:50.000 How did Saul die? According to verse four, he fell on his own sword. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:51.000 That's called suicide. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:56.000 And it's suicide in a battle zone in a war setting. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:59.000 But think about what Saul did. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:01.000 He didn't just take his own life. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:05.000 He took the life of God's anointed one. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:16.000 Think of all the times up to this point, how the Holy Spirit would not let David take the life of this man, Saul, that God had anointed. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:21.000 The word anointed is Messiah. 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:33.000 David learned from the Holy Spirit, a high view of God, the authority God had put in place in this anointed office of king of the people of God. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:40.000 And even if this anointed man, Saul, the king, the Lord had put over God's own people was wicked. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:42.000 David was in submission to God. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.000 So God would not do it. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:47.000 So David would not do it out of fear for God. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:50.000 And Saul does not hesitate. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:56.000 He has no fear of God, even in taking the life of the king, even though he himself is the king. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:05.000 Verse five says, when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:07.000 You wanted a king like all the other nations. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:09.000 That's what you got in Saul. 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:15.000 You go up with Saul like all the other nations and you fall with Saul like all the world. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:24.000 And so Saul and his three sons, his armor bearers, they all die together that same day. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:26.000 As goes the king, so goes the kingdom. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:33.000 And it continues to spread when the men of Israel were on the other side of the valley and those who were on the other side of the river. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:37.000 The Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.000 They forsook the cities and fled. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:42.000 Everyone's abandoning. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.000 No one has faith in God. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:47.000 It's utter failure for the army. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:17:01.000 Verse seven says, and then the Philistines came and dwelt among them. 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:06.000 The king fell and so the nation fell with him. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:08.000 This was a special thing God had done. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:10.000 This promised land. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:17.000 It's a picture of the kingdom of heaven coming to earth, intruding in, in time and space and history. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:27.000 A place where the God creator of all of heaven and earth would dwell with a people and these geographic borders. 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:32.000 And now those borders have been violated. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:42.000 And it's the worshipers of the serpent, the deceiver that are now dwelling in the land that was meant to be kept holy for God to dwell in himself. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:47.000 This realm that God marked off for his own holy habitation. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:51.000 No longer protected, no longer defended. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:57.000 Weigh the cost of rejecting the Lord as king. 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:02.000 Those who do live and die in fear. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:06.000 It's a horrible life and the most horrible death. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:14.000 But if the Lord is your king, you live and die with a confident hope, not in yourself, but in him. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:21.000 Not in any other king or thing that gives us security or identity or significance, but a confidence in God, my king. 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:25.000 And we can pray like Psalm 44, 25 and 26. 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.000 God, you are my deliverer. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:28.000 God, rise up. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:30.000 Come to our help. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.000 Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:38.000 Oh, but there's two more warnings. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:46.000 We need to weigh the cost of rejecting the Lord as king because those who do are trophies of Satan. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:54.000 Weigh the cost of rejecting God as the king of your life, because to do that is to become a trophy now for Satan. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.000 To parade around. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.000 Look at verse eight. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:02.000 So it happened the next day when the Philistines came to strip the sling. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:07.000 They're not going to let all their metal and weapons and clothing just be wasted. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:12.000 They're going to take it back, sell it at the pawn shop, whatever the Philistines would do. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:17.000 And they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:21.000 And they cut off his head. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:26.000 Do you remember how Saul was introduced to us? 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:31.000 He's the most handsome man in all the land. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:35.000 People would look at his face and swoon. 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:38.000 And that he stood. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.000 How tall was he? 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:45.000 He stood head and shoulders above all the other men of Israel. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:47.000 Not anymore. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:49.000 Not without his head. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:51.000 They cut off his head. 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:53.000 That word for cutting. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:56.000 It's the same word for cutting a covenant. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.000 There's a dark irony. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:06.000 Saul, who failed to keep covenant with God, now shares the same fate as Goliath. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:18.000 The federal representative of God's enemies, Goliath, with his head cut off and carried around by the champion God put forward, David, as his trophy. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:22.000 Now, Saul is related to Goliath. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:25.000 He's also stripped of his armor. 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.000 This has been something that's been prophesied. 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:33.000 He's going to be de-robed, dethroned. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:37.000 He's not going to be able to represent the office of king anymore. 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:45.000 And then the wording in the original language, according to the experts of what comes next, is interesting. 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.000 What it says they do next is left vague. 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:51.000 And so I don't want to read more into it that's there. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:55.000 But I also don't want our English to maybe make us miss something that was left vague on purpose. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:58.000 More literally would say this. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:01.000 They sent throughout the land of the Philistines. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:04.000 Well, what did they send throughout the land of the Philistines? 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:06.000 That's what it says. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:11.000 Some have speculated that it wasn't the clothes or the weapons or the armor. 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:13.000 We hear what happens to those next. 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:17.000 And so, therefore, what was it that they sent as a message around the land? 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:20.000 Some suggest that it must have been his head. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:21.000 Here's proof right here. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:28.000 Look at the head of King Saul, the king of Israel for yourselves, and know that he is no longer in power. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:34.000 And that message or that symbol that they were sending around the land was proclaimed. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:41.000 That's a word for a gospel announcement, a glad tiding proclaimed in the temple of their idols. 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:46.000 These pagan demons that they worship and among the people. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:55.000 This is the same Saul now receiving the fate for the glory he stole from God. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:01.000 He's the one who was very quick to parade himself around after God gave Israel a victory. 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:09.000 He's now profaned, laid bare, humiliated, utterly humbled. 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:16.000 They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtaroth and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:22.000 The Proverbs, you know, written by Saul's grandson, Solomon. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:29.000 They say this in Proverbs 5 to his own iniquities and trap the wicked man. 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:33.000 He is caught in the courts of his sins. 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:40.000 Proverbs 16, 8 pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:53.000 We need to beware of rejecting God as king, becoming a trophy of God's enemy. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:56.000 But still in the section, there's a surprising twist. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:02.000 Some men from one of these towns in the tribe of Benjamin are called valiant men. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:07.000 So the narrator inspired by the spirit is lifting them up as what they did is noble. 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:09.000 And it's a surprising twist at the end of the chapter. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:13.000 They show this act of loyalty. 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:17.000 Take note how it's the men from Jabesh Gilead. 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:20.000 And this reminds us of what had happened earlier in the same book. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:26.000 In Saul's rise after being anointed by God, God blessed Saul and gave him an early victory. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:33.000 And what he did was be the instrument through which God defeated the enemy and rescued the people from where? 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:37.000 From the town of Jabesh Gilead. 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:41.000 Now in Saul's demise, we're brought back to the same people again. 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:46.000 Even though Saul has now broke his covenant with God and been defeated by the army. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:49.000 These valiant men take his bones. 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:51.000 They rescue him. 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:55.000 At least his remains by that very same people. 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.000 Verse 11 tells us what they did. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:02.000 How they buried their bones. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:04.000 After burning them. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:06.000 Look at verse 13. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:10.000 Under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:11.000 Jabesh. 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:13.000 And they fasted seven days. 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:18.000 They're showing honor to the man who had been their deliverer or the instrument God used. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:25.000 And they're going back to that place, that shade tree at the top of a hill where Saul would use as his headquarters. 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:27.000 From there, he could look all around. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:32.000 And this was like his spot that they wanted to always remember when Saul was their king. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:35.000 They're honoring him even after his death. 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.000 The Philistines wanted to expose Saul to shame. 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:48.000 And the Benjamites were going out of their way, doing something valiant, sneaking in and robbing that back now to honor their dead king. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:55.000 And the irony here is that it was the job of the king to rescue the people. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:03.000 And Saul's fall was so great that now the people are the ones having to rescue not even him, but his burnt remains. 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:10.000 If you reject the Lord as your king, you are a trophy of Satan. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:16.000 But if the Lord is your king, you cry out in the words of Psalm 81 through 3, 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:19.000 Give ear, O shepherd of your people. 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:21.000 Stir up your might. 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:22.000 Come to save us. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:24.000 Restore us, O Lord. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:29.000 Let your face shine that we might be saved. 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:34.000 It's through the shining of God's face that he saves his people. 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:40.000 Well, I think the pattern is incredibly clear. 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:42.000 And I just need to ask you this question now. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:47.000 Of whom does Saul remind us? 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:53.000 Whomever you are under determines your destiny. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:59.000 And this was in God's providence that we came to that on our version of the Heidelberg Catechism. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.000 The fall of Adam, our first king appointed over Eden. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:12.000 Think of all the similarities between Adam in the garden and Saul, especially in the details of this chapter. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:17.000 Both were appointed by God himself. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:23.000 Adam was appointed over all creation and Saul was appointed over all the kingdom. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:31.000 Both Adam and Saul were given a divine mandate to rule and exercise dominion under God's ultimate sovereignty. 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:38.000 Both failed to obey a specific divine command, choosing their own path over the word of the Lord. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:46.000 Both attempted to shift the blame to others rather than taking full responsibility for their personal disobedience. 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:55.000 Both experienced a loss of their privileged status as a ruler and were eventually rejected from their original calling. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:02.000 Adam was kicked out of the garden and Saul died no longer to rule on this earth. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:10.000 Both saw their kingdoms fall into chaos and distress as a direct result of their rebellion against God. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:18.000 Both narratives conclude with the heavy reality of death following a broken relationship with the Creator. 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:26.000 The fall of both of these kings as federal heads results in the fall of all those they represent. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:32.000 Whichever king you are under determines your destiny and mine. 00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:38.000 We're either under Saul or we're under the anointed king. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:43.000 We're either under Adam or we're under the second Adam, Jesus Christ. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:49.000 We're either under the dominion of darkness or we've been translated to the kingdom of light of Jesus. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:56.000 Whomever you are under determines your destiny. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:02.000 In chapter 31, we have the final scene of God's first anointed king. 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:07.000 Remember all the details that we've just gone over together. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:11.000 He died on a hill that was called bubbling spring. 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:17.000 His bones were put under a shade tree where he used to rest and comfort. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:21.000 The hill where he died was a place of great bloodshed. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:25.000 It was a victory for Satan and Satan's army. 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:30.000 And his death resulted in the slavery of God's people. 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:36.000 If we're among those people, at that moment we would be crying out with them, 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:39.000 God, are you not true to your promise? 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:43.000 Are all of our hopes now buried with King Saul's bones? 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:50.000 By God's grace, we have the full counsel of his word and we can look ahead. 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:52.000 We must do that. 00:28:53.000 --> 00:28:57.000 We need to behold the true king that all of scripture points to. 00:28:58.000 --> 00:28:59.000 And this is the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:01.000 Romans 519 says, 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:06.000 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:11.000 so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:17.000 There is another anointed one, the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:23.000 He said, I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:28.000 And our Lord Jesus Christ came to do battle on another hill. 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:35.000 In Mark and Matthew, we read the name of this hill is Golgotha, the Hebrew word for skull. 00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:40.000 Not a hill of bubbling life, but a hill of death. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:48.000 We read that they clothed him with purple and they twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head and began to salute him, 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:51.000 mocking saying, hail king of the Jews. 00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:01.000 Brothers and sisters, we need to put our eyes on this anointed one, this king, Jesus Christ, the only worthy king for your life and mine. 00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:06.000 His tree is not a shade tree. 00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:12.000 There's no leaves on the cross. 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:19.000 Our Lord Jesus did not die in fear. 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:26.000 He died like a man, the only righteous man, enduring the torture of the cross. 00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:32.000 Marvel at the strength of King Jesus. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:36.000 And bow to him. 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:45.000 Him who committed no sin, nor was defeat found in his mouth when he was reviled, did not revile in return. 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:50.000 When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:55.000 On that hill was blood shed again, but it was blood. 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:03.000 Of the second person of the Trinity and the person of Jesus to purchase God's people out of slavery. 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:12.000 Galatians 3 13 says Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:17.000 And he rose from the dead and his resurrection confirmed his victory. 00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:19.000 Revelation 118. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:24.000 He says, I am he who lives and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:28.000 And I have the keys of Hades and of death. 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:32.000 So we've run to Jesus as our king. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:34.000 We embrace him as our king. 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:38.000 Jesus defeated sin, Satan, death. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:42.000 And he did this not because he lacked anything. 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:47.000 He did this for you and me who will run to him as our king now. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:51.000 He did this for the whole host of the Lord's army. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:58.000 First Corinthians 15 22 says for as an Adam all die. 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:06.000 Even so in Christ all shall be made alive who follow him and trust him as king of kings. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:14.000 Hebrews 2 14 and 15 says that through the death of Jesus, he might destroy him who had the power over death. 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:23.000 That is the devil and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:26.000 Our Lord Jesus sets us free from slavery. 00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:29.000 We worship him as our king. 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:38.000 He came on this mission and he did all of this for you and for me because God is true to his promises. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:39.000 Amen. 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:41.000 Exodus 15 13. 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:43.000 God says this. 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:45.000 I'm sorry. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:46.000 We say this of God. 00:32:46.000 --> 00:33:00.000 God, you have led us in your steadfast love us, your people whom you have redeemed and you guide your people by your strength to your holy abode. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:03.000 God will dwell with his people again. 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:05.000 Follow Jesus as our king. 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:08.000 Now we find our security in him. 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:10.000 We find our identity in him. 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:11.000 We find our identity in him. 00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:19.000 And we find our significance and belonging as a foot soldier in the kingdom, in the house of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:23.000 Let's pray and thank him for ruling over us as people. 00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:31.000 Oh, Lord, we praise you for how you take the tragic fall of our own sin, Lord. 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:37.000 And you redeem it by the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:41.000 Lord, we pray that the work of Jesus will be so clear to us. 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:48.000 We pray that we'll spend just a moment weighing the cost of rejecting you and run to you right away. 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:51.000 That we will flee the enemy. 00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:56.000 As our king and the bondage and the fear of man will flee from that, Lord. 00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:00.000 I pray that you'll help us to be tired of trying to run our own lives. 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:03.000 And act as though we're our own kings. 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:07.000 Please bring all things into subjection to yourself, Lord. 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:11.000 Beginning with our own hearts, our own households, this church, Lord. 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:13.000 We ask all of this for your glory. 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:14.000 Amen.