1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,520 Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,480 where we are proclaiming the truth to the world. 3 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:09,720 My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to 4 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:10,480 this podcast. 5 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:14,680 I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen 6 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:16,080 you in the word of God. 7 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:17,600 Now, come along. 8 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:21,440 Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today. 9 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:26,480 Let's get right into our Bible study here this evening. 10 00:00:27,190 --> 00:00:30,190 We have been going through the book of First Samuel, and we're in 11 00:00:30,190 --> 00:00:31,510 First Samuel, chapter 14. 12 00:00:32,310 --> 00:00:35,830 This will be our third study in First Samuel, chapter 14. 13 00:00:35,830 --> 00:00:38,150 It's a long chapter with a. 14 00:00:38,150 --> 00:00:39,190 With a lot of information. 15 00:00:39,510 --> 00:00:45,470 And we certainly have seen the example of what not to do in the 16 00:00:45,470 --> 00:00:46,230 life of Saul. 17 00:00:46,790 --> 00:00:47,230 Saul. 18 00:00:47,230 --> 00:00:52,390 King Saul has exhibited in this passage of scripture many different 19 00:00:52,390 --> 00:00:55,030 negative traits, one being pride. 20 00:00:55,030 --> 00:00:57,030 And that's what we're going to be talking about here this evening. 21 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:02,160 Last week, we talked about how he rushed right into an oath he spoke 22 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:05,240 before he thought he let his feelings dictate his actions. 23 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:08,120 And we're going to look at this week how his pride continued 24 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:11,160 to hinder him to make the right decisions for the Lord, which 25 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:13,639 ultimately brought him destruction in his life. 26 00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:16,720 And so there's a couple of passages I want us to go to first 27 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:20,120 before we start looking at first Samuel, chapter 14 that will 28 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:23,720 amplify our study with looking at the topic of pride. 29 00:01:24,110 --> 00:01:27,030 Now, the first one we're going to go to is in First John, chapter 30 00:01:27,030 --> 00:01:28,110 two in the New Testament. 31 00:01:28,110 --> 00:01:30,790 So if you're in First Samuel, turn all the way to the New Testament. 32 00:01:30,790 --> 00:01:33,470 We're going to look at a couple verses here in First John, 33 00:01:33,470 --> 00:01:36,670 chapter two, which speak of the source of pride. 34 00:01:37,070 --> 00:01:40,830 And I think a lot of times in our life, we can identify pride in 35 00:01:40,830 --> 00:01:41,390 other people. 36 00:01:41,390 --> 00:01:44,390 Like, if we're looking at people and we can say, wow, that 37 00:01:44,390 --> 00:01:47,310 person's really prideful by the way that they act, by what they 38 00:01:47,310 --> 00:01:50,270 say, by all the different indicators of their pride. 39 00:01:50,270 --> 00:01:53,470 But oftentimes it's difficult to identify pride in our own lives 40 00:01:54,130 --> 00:01:57,010 because sometimes we have those blinders on that we don't see 41 00:01:57,010 --> 00:01:57,970 our own flaws. 42 00:01:58,370 --> 00:02:01,450 But ultimately, what the Bible tells us is that we have to identify 43 00:02:01,450 --> 00:02:03,570 the source of our pride and what that looks like. 44 00:02:03,570 --> 00:02:07,850 And so in First John, chapter 2, verse 15, the Bible tells us that 45 00:02:07,850 --> 00:02:09,410 we can really love two things. 46 00:02:09,410 --> 00:02:12,690 We can love the things of God, or we could love the things of this 47 00:02:12,690 --> 00:02:13,010 world. 48 00:02:13,170 --> 00:02:16,250 And it says in First John, chapter 2, verse 15, Love not the 49 00:02:16,250 --> 00:02:19,010 world, neither the things that are in the world. 50 00:02:19,740 --> 00:02:22,140 So the Bible tells us that we should have a disdain for the world. 51 00:02:22,140 --> 00:02:24,860 That doesn't mean that we should hate the planet or hate the 52 00:02:24,860 --> 00:02:26,780 trees and the ground that are around us. 53 00:02:26,780 --> 00:02:30,180 No, it's talking about the ways of the enemy, the ways of the 54 00:02:30,180 --> 00:02:32,460 wicked one that have been set out in this world. 55 00:02:32,540 --> 00:02:34,620 So he says, don't love the things that are in the world. 56 00:02:34,620 --> 00:02:37,900 If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 57 00:02:37,900 --> 00:02:41,700 Meaning you can't love the things in this world and love the 58 00:02:41,700 --> 00:02:45,060 things of God and have those two come together and coincide in 59 00:02:45,060 --> 00:02:45,580 one place. 60 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:49,680 The Bible says in the book of James that that's what is the definition 61 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:51,000 of a double minded man. 62 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,600 A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways. 63 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:57,640 A double minded man or woman thinks about things from this perspective. 64 00:02:57,640 --> 00:02:59,520 I want to have the blessings of this world. 65 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:02,560 I want to love the things that are around me in this world. 66 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:05,440 The material things that I think are going to give me fleshly 67 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:06,960 benefit or material benefit. 68 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:10,040 But then I also want to have the blessings of the things of God 69 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:12,970 in the spiritual realm and, and obey him and follow him. 70 00:03:12,970 --> 00:03:16,050 And the Bible says that's unstable thinking because how could 71 00:03:16,050 --> 00:03:18,570 we love the things of the world and love the things of God 72 00:03:18,570 --> 00:03:19,770 and think that they're going to come together? 73 00:03:20,010 --> 00:03:21,210 So he says don't do that. 74 00:03:21,210 --> 00:03:24,970 Verse 16 for all that is in the world, this is the object of 75 00:03:24,970 --> 00:03:25,770 your love. 76 00:03:25,770 --> 00:03:28,450 When you love the things of this world for the love of the world 77 00:03:28,450 --> 00:03:31,610 is the lust of the flesh, what makes me feel good, the lust of the 78 00:03:31,610 --> 00:03:32,970 eyes, what looks good to me. 79 00:03:33,290 --> 00:03:35,290 And what we're really going to be talking about this evening. 80 00:03:35,290 --> 00:03:39,220 And the pride of light, pride of life is a self focus. 81 00:03:39,300 --> 00:03:43,060 It's, it's elevating yourself above the things of God. 82 00:03:43,060 --> 00:03:46,060 So it's the pride of life, it's not of the Father, but is of 83 00:03:46,060 --> 00:03:46,500 the world. 84 00:03:46,980 --> 00:03:51,060 And so the lifestyle of Saul was a lifestyle of pride. 85 00:03:51,060 --> 00:03:52,660 It was a lifestyle of selfishness. 86 00:03:52,660 --> 00:03:54,100 It's a lifestyle of the world. 87 00:03:54,980 --> 00:03:58,700 And so we see here that the love of God and the love of the world 88 00:03:58,700 --> 00:03:59,860 cannot coincide. 89 00:03:59,860 --> 00:04:03,380 And so one of the elements of the source of pride in our life is 90 00:04:03,380 --> 00:04:07,150 a love for this world, a love for ourselves above the love for 91 00:04:07,150 --> 00:04:07,510 God. 92 00:04:07,910 --> 00:04:10,350 We're going to take you to another passage of scripture. 93 00:04:10,350 --> 00:04:12,750 We're going to actually turn back to the Old Testament and look 94 00:04:12,750 --> 00:04:16,790 at the book of Proverbs, Proverbs, chapter 16. 95 00:04:16,950 --> 00:04:20,630 And the Bible tells us here what the outcome of pride will bring 96 00:04:20,630 --> 00:04:21,670 to us in our life. 97 00:04:22,229 --> 00:04:25,950 What, what the outcome of pride really is because sometimes 98 00:04:25,950 --> 00:04:27,270 people might think, well, you know what? 99 00:04:27,270 --> 00:04:29,110 Yeah, I've got an issue with pride, but what. 100 00:04:29,350 --> 00:04:30,950 What is that going to do for me? 101 00:04:30,950 --> 00:04:32,070 How is it going to hurt me? 102 00:04:33,020 --> 00:04:34,060 I can be prideful. 103 00:04:34,060 --> 00:04:36,140 I can love the things of this world and be okay. 104 00:04:36,140 --> 00:04:40,260 Well, in the Book of Proverbs, we see that there is an outcome to 105 00:04:40,260 --> 00:04:42,140 the pride that we have in our hearts. 106 00:04:42,300 --> 00:04:46,180 We'll start in Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 16, and we'll read 107 00:04:46,180 --> 00:04:50,140 verses 16, 17, and 18, and maybe even go to verse 19. 108 00:04:50,540 --> 00:04:53,380 We'll see here it says in verse 16, how much better is it to 109 00:04:53,380 --> 00:04:54,540 get wisdom than gold? 110 00:04:55,260 --> 00:04:58,580 And so obviously, we all know that the Book of Proverbs is a book 111 00:04:58,580 --> 00:04:59,740 of godly wisdom. 112 00:05:00,140 --> 00:05:00,740 And so what is he. 113 00:05:00,740 --> 00:05:03,420 He's saying here is he says godly wisdom is better than anything 114 00:05:03,420 --> 00:05:07,300 material, anything that we think has value like gold and to 115 00:05:07,300 --> 00:05:10,140 get understanding rather than to be chosen than silver. 116 00:05:10,300 --> 00:05:14,100 And so the Bible speaks of the value of the type of wisdom that 117 00:05:14,100 --> 00:05:15,020 we find in God. 118 00:05:15,020 --> 00:05:17,380 It's more valuable than anything that we can find in this 119 00:05:17,380 --> 00:05:17,660 world. 120 00:05:17,980 --> 00:05:21,380 Then verse 17, he says, the highway of the upright or the righteous 121 00:05:21,380 --> 00:05:23,100 is to depart from evil. 122 00:05:23,100 --> 00:05:30,010 So wisdom in our Christian life, godly knowledge is the application 123 00:05:30,250 --> 00:05:32,210 of what God gives us in truth. 124 00:05:32,210 --> 00:05:33,250 And that would be wisdom. 125 00:05:33,250 --> 00:05:33,450 Right? 126 00:05:33,450 --> 00:05:34,970 I've used this example before. 127 00:05:35,770 --> 00:05:39,530 I lived in Florida for most of my life until I moved to Delaware. 128 00:05:39,690 --> 00:05:42,850 And one of the things that I like to do is I like to get out into 129 00:05:42,850 --> 00:05:43,490 the wilderness. 130 00:05:43,490 --> 00:05:46,890 I like to be around the wildlife, and I like to interact 131 00:05:46,890 --> 00:05:47,690 with wildlife. 132 00:05:47,850 --> 00:05:50,450 One of the things that you need to be aware of when you're in 133 00:05:50,450 --> 00:05:53,010 Florida is that there's wildlife that can actually really 134 00:05:53,010 --> 00:05:56,050 hurt you and not just temporarily hurt you, but can actually 135 00:05:56,050 --> 00:05:56,770 take your life. 136 00:05:57,090 --> 00:05:59,010 And so there are venomous snakes there. 137 00:05:59,090 --> 00:06:02,130 And one of the things that my dad did very early on in my life 138 00:06:02,130 --> 00:06:04,930 is he knew that he couldn't tell me to stay away from these animals, 139 00:06:04,930 --> 00:06:06,290 so he started teaching me, okay? 140 00:06:06,290 --> 00:06:07,970 These are the ones that you need to be aware of. 141 00:06:07,970 --> 00:06:10,570 The other ones, you just have at it, all right? 142 00:06:10,570 --> 00:06:12,050 If it's not venomous, just grab it. 143 00:06:12,050 --> 00:06:13,410 It can't hurt you too much, okay? 144 00:06:13,650 --> 00:06:16,130 So one of the things is that we would identify, okay? 145 00:06:16,130 --> 00:06:19,170 Now that snake that has the rattle on its tail, that's making 146 00:06:19,170 --> 00:06:19,970 this noise, okay? 147 00:06:19,970 --> 00:06:20,730 That's a bad snake. 148 00:06:20,730 --> 00:06:21,250 That's a warning. 149 00:06:21,250 --> 00:06:22,090 Don't touch that snake. 150 00:06:22,090 --> 00:06:23,250 Don't get anywhere near that snake. 151 00:06:23,950 --> 00:06:26,470 So knowledge is knowing that that snake could hurt me. 152 00:06:26,470 --> 00:06:27,910 Wisdom is staying away from it. 153 00:06:27,910 --> 00:06:29,350 And separating myself. 154 00:06:29,350 --> 00:06:32,270 Okay, so wisdom is the application of knowledge. 155 00:06:33,070 --> 00:06:36,430 So God gives us all these truths in his word in the area of 156 00:06:36,430 --> 00:06:37,270 godly knowledge. 157 00:06:37,270 --> 00:06:40,590 And when we apply those truths, that's godly wisdom. 158 00:06:40,910 --> 00:06:42,310 And so he says here the. 159 00:06:42,310 --> 00:06:44,750 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. 160 00:06:44,750 --> 00:06:46,510 So wisdom is departing from evil. 161 00:06:47,310 --> 00:06:50,030 He that keepeth his way, preserveth his soul. 162 00:06:50,030 --> 00:06:51,250 He that, meaning the. 163 00:06:51,250 --> 00:06:56,330 The one who follows God's plan is going to be able to preserve his 164 00:06:56,330 --> 00:06:56,650 soul. 165 00:06:56,650 --> 00:06:58,570 Now, ultimately, it's God preserving our soul. 166 00:06:58,570 --> 00:06:59,290 It's not ourselves. 167 00:06:59,610 --> 00:07:03,490 But the wisdom here is that if we want to have a soul that is unmarred 168 00:07:03,490 --> 00:07:05,810 from the things of this world, we need to walk in the way that God 169 00:07:05,810 --> 00:07:06,449 has given us. 170 00:07:06,449 --> 00:07:08,010 And so he says verse 18. 171 00:07:08,010 --> 00:07:10,490 And this is the keynote verse here. 172 00:07:10,650 --> 00:07:16,330 Pride goeth before destruction in a hottie spirit, before it falls. 173 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:18,560 Meaning what is pride going to bring? 174 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:21,480 Pride's going to bring destruction, pride's going to bring 175 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:21,920 a fall. 176 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:25,520 A pride's going to give us, give us an opportunity to think that 177 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:28,600 we're in control, to think that we have it all figured out. 178 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:31,680 But pride will eventually have the floor fall out from underneath 179 00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:31,800 us. 180 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:34,960 And we find ourselves really not in godly wisdom, but in what 181 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:37,120 we call worldly wisdom, which brings destruction. 182 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:40,880 Then he says in verse 19, better it is to be of a humble spirit 183 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:45,520 with the lowly, with the people that are humble, than to divide 184 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:46,640 the spoil with the proud. 185 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:49,520 Meaning we never want to be identified as a prideful person, 186 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:52,720 and we don't even want to be around those types of people because 187 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:53,960 that can rub off on. 188 00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:54,360 On us. 189 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:59,560 And so what he says here is, be aware of the dangers of a prideful 190 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:00,080 spirit. 191 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:03,560 And so we know that in First John, chapter two, the source of 192 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:05,680 that prideful spirit is the ways of this world. 193 00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:08,640 Evil, destruction, the opposite way of the Lord. 194 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:12,480 And what we see In Proverbs chapter 16 is that the end of that 195 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:15,100 will be destruction and pain, hopelessness. 196 00:08:15,500 --> 00:08:20,260 So with all of that being said and having that in our minds, let's 197 00:08:20,260 --> 00:08:22,440 go to First Samuel, chapter 14. 198 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:29,340 1 Samuel, chapter 14 is a chapter here that speaks of Jonathan, 199 00:08:29,420 --> 00:08:33,020 which is Saul's son, his faithfulness, his willingness to 200 00:08:33,180 --> 00:08:35,580 go out and fight the Philistines, and trusting in the 201 00:08:35,580 --> 00:08:36,180 Lord for victory. 202 00:08:36,180 --> 00:08:37,820 And God gives him the victory. 203 00:08:38,780 --> 00:08:42,300 But at the same time, it's also a story of Saul's pride and 204 00:08:42,380 --> 00:08:44,930 his lack of humility to the place where he. 205 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:46,160 He was just going to make an oath. 206 00:08:46,160 --> 00:08:46,400 He. 207 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:47,400 He wanted revenge. 208 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:49,720 If you remember, he said, we've got to keep pushing against 209 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:50,400 The Philistines. 210 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:50,680 Why? 211 00:08:50,680 --> 00:08:52,200 Because I need revenge. 212 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:55,920 Not because we are going to get this victory in the Lord that 213 00:08:55,920 --> 00:08:57,080 we want to honor God. 214 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:01,159 And so Saul's focus was never ultimately honoring God. 215 00:09:01,159 --> 00:09:02,280 It was honoring himself. 216 00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:06,200 And so he makes this foolish, hasty oath which basically says, 217 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:11,000 anyone who eats before the battle is over is going to die. 218 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:15,080 Now, he doesn't know what the implications of that oath really 219 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:15,680 will be. 220 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:18,560 Really, what he does is he condemns his son to death. 221 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:21,880 And his son Jonathan, who wasn't there for the oath, comes 222 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:24,680 in and he sees all this honey on the ground, and he says, well, 223 00:09:24,680 --> 00:09:25,280 I'm really tired. 224 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:27,640 I've been fighting all day, so I'm going to take of this honey. 225 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:28,440 He takes of this honey. 226 00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:30,240 And all the people know what that means. 227 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:32,400 Now, Saul doesn't know that yet. 228 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:36,880 And ultimately, Saul continues to exercise his sin by removing his. 229 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:38,400 His troops from the food. 230 00:09:38,730 --> 00:09:41,610 And it eventually drives them by way of what we would call empty 231 00:09:41,610 --> 00:09:43,410 faith, empty religious acts. 232 00:09:43,410 --> 00:09:44,730 He says, let's all have a fast. 233 00:09:44,730 --> 00:09:45,850 Let's continue to fast. 234 00:09:46,090 --> 00:09:49,130 Which sounds somewhat spiritual, except remember, the motivation 235 00:09:49,130 --> 00:09:51,450 is not in honoring God, it's honoring himself. 236 00:09:51,690 --> 00:09:55,770 So it's an empty religious act essentially aligned with legalism, 237 00:09:55,930 --> 00:09:59,770 that leads the whole army to go sin by eating meat that was not 238 00:09:59,770 --> 00:10:00,810 properly prepared. 239 00:10:01,290 --> 00:10:05,610 And so Saul not only has affected himself by his poor actions 240 00:10:05,610 --> 00:10:10,670 and his attitude, but now he's affected his whole army and really 241 00:10:10,670 --> 00:10:11,670 affected his son. 242 00:10:12,470 --> 00:10:15,990 So where we left off last week was that seemeth good unto thee then, 243 00:10:15,990 --> 00:10:16,790 said the priest. 244 00:10:16,870 --> 00:10:21,030 Hey, by the way, Saul, before we go do this, let us draw near hither 245 00:10:21,030 --> 00:10:21,670 unto the Lord. 246 00:10:21,670 --> 00:10:22,030 God. 247 00:10:22,030 --> 00:10:22,790 Unto God. 248 00:10:23,590 --> 00:10:26,510 Now, it's interesting that that's brought up now. 249 00:10:26,510 --> 00:10:28,510 That should have been what Saul did at the very beginning. 250 00:10:28,510 --> 00:10:31,950 But again, he's acting and hoping that God will bless instead 251 00:10:31,950 --> 00:10:34,270 of going to the Lord and taking his guidance. 252 00:10:34,270 --> 00:10:35,190 Again, that's pride. 253 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:37,040 Pride is I'm going to do what I'm going to do. 254 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:38,240 And hopefully God just blesses. 255 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:43,040 That humility is saying, lord, I can't act until you give me clarity 256 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:43,960 and understanding. 257 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:45,000 Verse 37. 258 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:47,800 And Saul asked counsel of God, so he goes to the Lord. 259 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:49,840 Shall I go down after the Philistines? 260 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:51,840 Wilt thou deliver them into the hand of Israel? 261 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:53,560 But he answered him not that day. 262 00:10:53,560 --> 00:10:57,640 So God doesn't answer him, which means there's more to happen. 263 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:00,360 There's going to be some things that God needs to teach Saul 264 00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:01,800 in the midst of his pride. 265 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:04,560 And so God does not give him the answer that he's seeking after. 266 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:08,300 And I think we all understand that sometimes when we seek after 267 00:11:08,300 --> 00:11:12,660 the Lord, there's many reasons why he might not answer us right 268 00:11:12,660 --> 00:11:12,940 away. 269 00:11:13,580 --> 00:11:14,780 Sometimes it's a test. 270 00:11:15,580 --> 00:11:18,780 Sometimes it's because we're regarding iniquity in our heart, 271 00:11:18,780 --> 00:11:19,900 as the Bible says. 272 00:11:19,980 --> 00:11:23,820 And in this case, we understand that Saul has some unfinished 273 00:11:23,820 --> 00:11:25,420 business that he needs to handle. 274 00:11:25,500 --> 00:11:29,100 And it's that oath that he said about someone eating. 275 00:11:29,180 --> 00:11:30,940 They might die or they should die. 276 00:11:31,310 --> 00:11:32,150 That's what's going to happen. 277 00:11:32,150 --> 00:11:35,190 Now, Starting in verse 38, we're going to talk about how this 278 00:11:35,190 --> 00:11:38,830 all comes to pass and how really God steps in and intervenes 279 00:11:38,830 --> 00:11:42,910 in Saul's bad decision and ultimately spares Jonathan's life 280 00:11:42,910 --> 00:11:45,070 through other people, not Saul. 281 00:11:45,230 --> 00:11:47,830 So let's look at verse number 38, and we're going to pick it all 282 00:11:47,830 --> 00:11:48,590 up here tonight. 283 00:11:48,590 --> 00:11:51,430 And I hope that that gave you enough context to understand what 284 00:11:51,430 --> 00:11:52,510 we're talking about here. 285 00:11:53,230 --> 00:11:58,270 So Saul does go to the Lord eventually, but now God is not answering 286 00:11:58,270 --> 00:11:58,590 him. 287 00:11:58,950 --> 00:12:01,470 So Saul, instead of waiting on the Lord like he should. 288 00:12:01,470 --> 00:12:01,830 Right. 289 00:12:01,830 --> 00:12:04,670 So what's the proper response for us when we go to the Lord and 290 00:12:04,670 --> 00:12:06,870 ask him for something and he doesn't respond right away? 291 00:12:07,270 --> 00:12:08,950 Well, it's not to just go act then. 292 00:12:08,950 --> 00:12:11,390 It's not to say, well, God didn't answer me, so let me just 293 00:12:11,390 --> 00:12:12,710 come up with my best idea. 294 00:12:12,950 --> 00:12:15,910 It's if God's telling us to wait, then we should wait. 295 00:12:15,990 --> 00:12:17,670 That's called biblical patience. 296 00:12:18,550 --> 00:12:21,270 So, so tied to humility is patience. 297 00:12:21,750 --> 00:12:23,190 And we talked a little about the. 298 00:12:23,190 --> 00:12:27,300 The dichotomy of patience and what we would call passiveness. 299 00:12:27,620 --> 00:12:30,220 A lot of times we think that patience is passiveness. 300 00:12:30,220 --> 00:12:33,140 No, the Bible very clearly teaches that patience is waiting 301 00:12:33,140 --> 00:12:36,700 on the Lord and being prepared for when he speaks. 302 00:12:36,700 --> 00:12:38,740 I move passiveness is. 303 00:12:38,740 --> 00:12:40,060 I don't care what the Lord says. 304 00:12:40,060 --> 00:12:43,860 I'm afraid, I'm doubting, I'm concerned, I'm prideful. 305 00:12:43,860 --> 00:12:46,260 And so I'm just not going to do what I know I need to do. 306 00:12:46,900 --> 00:12:50,860 So in this case, what we really see is that Saul isn't passive 307 00:12:50,860 --> 00:12:51,580 or patient. 308 00:12:51,580 --> 00:12:52,180 He's just. 309 00:12:52,660 --> 00:12:53,060 He's. 310 00:12:53,060 --> 00:12:55,300 What we would say is that he just takes action right away. 311 00:12:55,300 --> 00:12:55,580 He. 312 00:12:55,580 --> 00:12:57,380 He would be impulsive. 313 00:12:57,460 --> 00:12:59,220 He would be filled with anxiety. 314 00:12:59,220 --> 00:13:02,540 And in his anxiety, he starts making these strange decisions about 315 00:13:02,540 --> 00:13:05,820 casting lots to decide who is this man who's in sin? 316 00:13:05,820 --> 00:13:08,819 He says, basically, here we know that there's someone in sin. 317 00:13:08,980 --> 00:13:10,100 Let's figure this out. 318 00:13:10,180 --> 00:13:13,740 He's not aware and humble enough to see that he's the one that's 319 00:13:13,740 --> 00:13:15,620 causing all these problems in his sin. 320 00:13:15,860 --> 00:13:18,990 So he goes along blaming other people, and again with pride. 321 00:13:18,990 --> 00:13:20,230 That's another character trait. 322 00:13:20,230 --> 00:13:23,350 We have issues in our life, and because of our pride, we want 323 00:13:23,350 --> 00:13:25,390 to blame somebody else for our problems. 324 00:13:25,870 --> 00:13:26,710 So verse 38. 325 00:13:26,710 --> 00:13:30,830 And Saul said, draw ye near hither, all the chief of the people, 326 00:13:30,830 --> 00:13:34,109 and know and see wherein this sin hath been this day. 327 00:13:34,109 --> 00:13:36,750 Meaning, let's find out who's the problem. 328 00:13:37,310 --> 00:13:38,990 Why isn't God answering us? 329 00:13:38,990 --> 00:13:40,630 Well, it must be because someone ate. 330 00:13:40,630 --> 00:13:42,830 And now we need to know who to put to death. 331 00:13:42,990 --> 00:13:44,550 And that's what Saul's going to do here. 332 00:13:44,550 --> 00:13:47,750 He's going to try to find out who's the one he needs to put to 333 00:13:47,750 --> 00:13:48,030 death. 334 00:13:48,830 --> 00:13:50,350 And so Saul is. 335 00:13:50,350 --> 00:13:53,630 Is always really good at making these strong decisions and 336 00:13:53,710 --> 00:13:57,070 making what seems to be like a strong religious decision. 337 00:13:57,070 --> 00:14:00,870 But ultimately we know that it's an empty decision that ultimately 338 00:14:00,870 --> 00:14:02,029 is going to fall in. 339 00:14:02,029 --> 00:14:02,950 In a way of destruction. 340 00:14:02,950 --> 00:14:03,710 Verse 39. 341 00:14:03,950 --> 00:14:08,910 For as the Lord liveth which saveth Israel, so he identifies that 342 00:14:08,910 --> 00:14:13,190 God saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan, in my son, Jonathan, 343 00:14:13,190 --> 00:14:15,030 my son, he shall surely die. 344 00:14:15,590 --> 00:14:19,110 So he says, jonathan was used by God to have this victory. 345 00:14:19,110 --> 00:14:20,950 But whoever did this is going to surely die. 346 00:14:21,030 --> 00:14:24,470 But there was not a man among all the people that answered him. 347 00:14:25,190 --> 00:14:28,710 And so the people that were around knew that Jonathan was the 348 00:14:28,710 --> 00:14:29,670 one who ate the honey. 349 00:14:30,230 --> 00:14:34,230 And so they understand that Saul is sentencing his son to death. 350 00:14:35,110 --> 00:14:35,430 And. 351 00:14:35,430 --> 00:14:38,470 And basically they're waiting for this all to come to light. 352 00:14:38,470 --> 00:14:41,270 And we know that God always brings to light the truth. 353 00:14:41,270 --> 00:14:44,920 And we see here that Saul is just going to make more oaths. 354 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:48,000 He's going to make more what he would consider to be religious 355 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:49,520 professions before these people. 356 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:50,960 So let's look at verse number 40. 357 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:54,720 He says, Then said he unto all Israel, be on one side. 358 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:58,240 So he says, okay, everybody go to that side. 359 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:01,680 And then he says, and I and Jonathan, my son will be on the other 360 00:15:01,680 --> 00:15:02,000 side. 361 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:05,280 So he immediately says that he and his son are innocent. 362 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:06,720 So there's an assumption here. 363 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:09,870 He makes an assumption that's not true because obviously Jonathan 364 00:15:09,870 --> 00:15:13,270 is the one that is guilty of eating the honey. 365 00:15:13,270 --> 00:15:16,190 He doesn't know that even though it's not necessarily sin against 366 00:15:16,190 --> 00:15:17,470 God in this case. 367 00:15:17,470 --> 00:15:19,230 Saul says, it's definitely not us. 368 00:15:19,230 --> 00:15:20,630 We're not the ones that are the problem. 369 00:15:20,870 --> 00:15:24,350 So he makes an assumption by saying, everybody separate from us 370 00:15:24,350 --> 00:15:25,910 because we're the innocent ones. 371 00:15:26,230 --> 00:15:28,790 And he says, and I and Jonathan, my son, will be on the 372 00:15:28,790 --> 00:15:29,150 other side. 373 00:15:29,150 --> 00:15:32,230 And the people said unto Saul, do what seemeth good unto Thee. 374 00:15:32,470 --> 00:15:34,910 It's almost as if they're like, okay, Saul, you're going to 375 00:15:34,910 --> 00:15:38,750 see this isn't a good decision, but he makes this decision. 376 00:15:38,830 --> 00:15:42,070 So Saul wanted to find the wrongdoer, and the way that he was 377 00:15:42,070 --> 00:15:43,630 going to do it is by casting lots. 378 00:15:43,630 --> 00:15:46,190 And so he separates the people into two groups. 379 00:15:46,430 --> 00:15:48,910 And essentially what would have happened is they would have 380 00:15:48,910 --> 00:15:52,909 rolled some kind of dice, and they would have realized, okay, each 381 00:15:52,909 --> 00:15:55,310 one of these roles would eliminate different groups. 382 00:15:55,310 --> 00:15:56,830 And that's really what he wanted to do. 383 00:15:56,830 --> 00:16:00,830 So what Saul was trying to do, Saul wanted everyone to know that 384 00:16:01,070 --> 00:16:03,230 he and his son were innocent. 385 00:16:04,790 --> 00:16:08,830 And so he makes that first decision to divide, and we're going 386 00:16:08,830 --> 00:16:12,950 to find out that he's going to see that he is actually part of the 387 00:16:12,950 --> 00:16:13,590 guilty party. 388 00:16:14,150 --> 00:16:16,550 So let's see what happens here. 389 00:16:17,590 --> 00:16:19,190 Verse number 41. 390 00:16:20,150 --> 00:16:24,390 Therefore, Saul said unto the Lord God of Israel, give a perfect 391 00:16:24,390 --> 00:16:24,710 lot. 392 00:16:25,030 --> 00:16:27,110 He says, basically, give us the truth. 393 00:16:27,270 --> 00:16:30,840 And Saul and Jonathan were taken, but the people escaped. 394 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:33,960 And Saul cast lots between me and Jonathan. 395 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:37,880 And Saul said, cast lots between me and my Jonathan, my son. 396 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:38,840 And Jonathan was taken. 397 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:43,040 So what happens here is basically Saul finds out that Jonathan 398 00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:43,800 was the one who ate. 399 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:47,360 So now he realizes that because of his oath that he made, 400 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:51,840 this fleshly sinful, selfish oath that he made about getting revenge, 401 00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:55,830 has now condemned his son in his mind and in his eyes, to death. 402 00:16:56,470 --> 00:16:59,510 And so Saul obviously was shaken here. 403 00:16:59,670 --> 00:17:04,070 There's a huge implication to his oath that he didn't even know. 404 00:17:04,070 --> 00:17:07,590 So basically, he's pronounced death over his son whether he knew 405 00:17:07,590 --> 00:17:08,070 it or not. 406 00:17:08,710 --> 00:17:12,790 And so at this very point, the right answer for Saul, okay, he's 407 00:17:12,790 --> 00:17:14,310 already made a bunch of bad decisions. 408 00:17:14,870 --> 00:17:17,750 But the right answer for Saul at this very moment should be the 409 00:17:17,750 --> 00:17:22,360 fall before God in humility and in repentance, and say, lord, 410 00:17:22,360 --> 00:17:24,000 I made a terrible oath. 411 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:25,680 I made a mistake. 412 00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:27,400 I recognize my. 413 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:29,960 My hastiness in that oath, Lord, please. 414 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:30,240 And. 415 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:32,040 And begging the Lord to save his son. 416 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:32,480 I mean, he. 417 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,080 He should be the one who is taking responsibility. 418 00:17:36,719 --> 00:17:40,520 He should be the one that is in humility, coming to the Lord in 419 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:41,000 repentance. 420 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,880 And really, the Bible calls us to have a repentant spirit. 421 00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:45,840 God calls us to have a repentant heart. 422 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:48,000 And one of the things that we were talking about before is that 423 00:17:48,340 --> 00:17:51,220 if we have a prideful spirit, we will not be repentant. 424 00:17:51,220 --> 00:17:51,540 Why? 425 00:17:51,620 --> 00:17:55,140 Because remember, in our prideful heart, it's not our fault. 426 00:17:55,140 --> 00:17:56,420 It's someone else's fault. 427 00:17:56,740 --> 00:17:59,420 And so therefore, I'm never going to come to a place of Repentance. 428 00:17:59,420 --> 00:18:02,100 And by the way, I think we need to define what repentance is. 429 00:18:02,340 --> 00:18:05,300 Repentance is a term about turning away from something. 430 00:18:05,540 --> 00:18:06,700 Turning away from something. 431 00:18:06,700 --> 00:18:09,060 And I would even add turning to something. 432 00:18:09,220 --> 00:18:13,780 So turning away from my sin and my failures and turning to the 433 00:18:13,780 --> 00:18:16,610 Lord for his forgiveness, that's biblical repentance. 434 00:18:16,610 --> 00:18:17,370 And so we. 435 00:18:17,370 --> 00:18:17,570 We. 436 00:18:17,570 --> 00:18:18,770 We talk about revival. 437 00:18:19,010 --> 00:18:22,690 We talk about aligning ourselves in the will of God. 438 00:18:22,770 --> 00:18:26,290 Well, that always means that we have to come to a place of repentance. 439 00:18:26,370 --> 00:18:28,690 Well, with the place of repentance comes humility. 440 00:18:29,090 --> 00:18:33,050 And so Saul should have, at this very point, recognize that it's 441 00:18:33,050 --> 00:18:38,770 his fault that his son is now condemned to death in his mind because 442 00:18:38,770 --> 00:18:41,650 of his fleshly prideful decision. 443 00:18:42,830 --> 00:18:46,830 So Saul should have been humble, and he should have recognized 444 00:18:46,830 --> 00:18:47,950 that he made a mistake. 445 00:18:48,430 --> 00:18:49,470 But what does Saul do? 446 00:18:49,470 --> 00:18:54,830 He hardens his heart and basically doubles down on the commandment. 447 00:18:54,830 --> 00:18:58,149 He basically doubles down and says, well, if my son's gonna die, 448 00:18:58,149 --> 00:18:58,910 he's gonna die. 449 00:18:59,390 --> 00:19:02,350 And really doesn't ever take a place of humility. 450 00:19:02,350 --> 00:19:06,110 So let's see what happens here in verse number 43. 451 00:19:06,110 --> 00:19:09,310 Then Saul said to Jonathan, tell me what thou hast done? 452 00:19:09,310 --> 00:19:10,980 So he's like, what did you do? 453 00:19:11,700 --> 00:19:13,580 Said he should have said, you know, look what I've done. 454 00:19:13,580 --> 00:19:16,300 And Jonathan told him and said, I did but taste a little honey 455 00:19:16,300 --> 00:19:19,620 with the end of the rod that was in mine hand, and lo, I must 456 00:19:19,620 --> 00:19:20,020 die. 457 00:19:20,740 --> 00:19:24,420 I think the reality here is this, and I think that what we have 458 00:19:24,420 --> 00:19:26,820 to take into account is that Jonathan did not know about this 459 00:19:26,820 --> 00:19:27,220 oath. 460 00:19:28,020 --> 00:19:30,900 It's not about Jonathan disobeying his father or disobeying 461 00:19:30,900 --> 00:19:31,340 the king. 462 00:19:31,340 --> 00:19:33,140 Jonathan was unaware of this oath. 463 00:19:33,300 --> 00:19:36,300 And so it's not like Jonathan was walking in rebellion to God and 464 00:19:36,300 --> 00:19:37,700 to the king and to his father. 465 00:19:38,060 --> 00:19:40,660 But now Jonathan's like, do I have to die for the decision that 466 00:19:40,660 --> 00:19:41,060 I made? 467 00:19:41,060 --> 00:19:42,100 I'm the one that took the honey. 468 00:19:42,100 --> 00:19:42,740 He admits it. 469 00:19:42,740 --> 00:19:44,540 Jonathan doesn't try to hide it. 470 00:19:44,700 --> 00:19:45,500 Verse 45. 471 00:19:45,500 --> 00:19:49,100 And the people said unto Saul, shall Jonathan die? 472 00:19:50,700 --> 00:19:54,900 And what really, I skipped verse 44, Saul answered, and this 473 00:19:54,900 --> 00:19:55,220 is key. 474 00:19:55,220 --> 00:19:56,740 I think we should note verse 44. 475 00:19:56,740 --> 00:20:02,020 And Saul answered, God do so and more also, for thou shalt surely 476 00:20:02,020 --> 00:20:02,860 die, Jonathan. 477 00:20:03,260 --> 00:20:07,410 So basically, verse 44 tells us that instead of Saul saying, you 478 00:20:07,410 --> 00:20:07,650 know what? 479 00:20:07,650 --> 00:20:11,130 It's my fault, and asking the Lord for some type of relief and 480 00:20:11,370 --> 00:20:13,210 having a repentant heart, Saul is. 481 00:20:13,370 --> 00:20:18,130 Is willing to kill his son rather than humbly admit that he 482 00:20:18,130 --> 00:20:18,650 was wrong. 483 00:20:18,970 --> 00:20:22,490 And this shows you how prideful Saul really Is Saul's like, 484 00:20:22,490 --> 00:20:23,570 okay, yeah, I made the mistake. 485 00:20:23,570 --> 00:20:25,530 But I guess Jonathan, yeah, you have to die. 486 00:20:25,690 --> 00:20:28,250 Because that's what Jonathan asked at the end of that verse. 487 00:20:28,250 --> 00:20:31,330 In verse 43, he was like, do I have to die now? 488 00:20:31,330 --> 00:20:34,410 And basically he says, yes, Jonathan, you have to die because 489 00:20:34,860 --> 00:20:36,060 of this oath that I made. 490 00:20:36,700 --> 00:20:40,540 And so Saul was willing to kill his son rather than to humbly 491 00:20:40,540 --> 00:20:42,140 admit that he was at fault. 492 00:20:43,340 --> 00:20:44,100 And this is a. 493 00:20:44,100 --> 00:20:44,300 A. 494 00:20:44,300 --> 00:20:44,540 A. 495 00:20:44,540 --> 00:20:46,860 A strong contrast from where Saul started. 496 00:20:46,860 --> 00:20:50,180 If you remember back in 1st Samuel, chapter 10, Saul was somewhat 497 00:20:50,180 --> 00:20:53,300 of a humble man when it came to the way he dealt with being anointed 498 00:20:53,300 --> 00:20:57,860 as king, but with this absolute power that he felt that 499 00:20:57,860 --> 00:21:03,670 he had, it corrupted his heart and gave him a false sense of elevated 500 00:21:03,670 --> 00:21:07,030 pride that he continued on with for the rest of his life. 501 00:21:07,750 --> 00:21:10,470 And so he had humility at one point. 502 00:21:10,470 --> 00:21:14,710 But we're never exempt from the temptation to be overtaken by 503 00:21:14,710 --> 00:21:17,270 pride because of the circumstances that are around us. 504 00:21:17,510 --> 00:21:19,310 And it's so easy to fall into pride. 505 00:21:19,310 --> 00:21:24,550 I mean, if we're not careful, one compliment, one. 506 00:21:24,790 --> 00:21:29,990 One recognition of our good work could allow us to kind of taste 507 00:21:29,990 --> 00:21:33,530 that sense of pride, and we can fall right into that trap. 508 00:21:34,010 --> 00:21:36,690 And no doubt, Saul got a lot of fanfare. 509 00:21:36,690 --> 00:21:39,770 Saul got a lot of praise because of the role that he had as 510 00:21:39,770 --> 00:21:41,290 the king of the people. 511 00:21:41,370 --> 00:21:44,530 Remember, the people wanted him, and he was head and shoulders 512 00:21:44,530 --> 00:21:45,650 above them, and he was strong. 513 00:21:45,650 --> 00:21:48,410 And we're going to see at the end of this chapter that he does 514 00:21:48,490 --> 00:21:52,530 act in many victorious victories in battle and does conquer 515 00:21:52,530 --> 00:21:53,210 a lot of people. 516 00:21:53,530 --> 00:21:56,930 And so Saul is being fed all of these things about how great he 517 00:21:56,930 --> 00:21:59,990 is, how strong he is, how powerful he is. 518 00:22:00,070 --> 00:22:02,950 And now he's at the place where he's like, yeah, I made a mistake. 519 00:22:02,950 --> 00:22:03,550 But you know what? 520 00:22:03,550 --> 00:22:05,110 You're gonna have to pay for it, Jonathan. 521 00:22:05,110 --> 00:22:07,350 And so it's a deflection of responsibility. 522 00:22:08,310 --> 00:22:11,350 And again, with pride comes that deflection of responsibility. 523 00:22:11,750 --> 00:22:12,550 Well, it's not me. 524 00:22:12,550 --> 00:22:13,590 It's it's you. 525 00:22:13,830 --> 00:22:15,190 It's your problem now. 526 00:22:16,070 --> 00:22:20,830 And so really, what we see at the end of this passage is that Saul 527 00:22:20,830 --> 00:22:22,590 is stuck in his pride. 528 00:22:22,590 --> 00:22:23,990 He's not willing to repent of it. 529 00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:30,120 And the challenge for us as believers is where do we come to 530 00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:34,200 in our life where we recognize those instances where pride has taken 531 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:34,560 over? 532 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,720 Now, it might not be totally pervasive in our lives. 533 00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:41,800 I mean, maybe we're humble in certain avenues, but when we get 534 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:44,840 to those places in our life that we're really confident in, that's 535 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:49,080 when the pride comes out, and I, I want us to think about, really, 536 00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:51,200 we're going to pause here because we're going to see that God 537 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:52,720 still intervenes as he always does. 538 00:22:53,490 --> 00:22:59,170 But we're going to see that when we are Christians and when we're 539 00:22:59,170 --> 00:23:02,930 walking in the goodness of God, it's very easy for us to walk 540 00:23:02,930 --> 00:23:05,850 in humility when we understand the great gift that God has given 541 00:23:05,850 --> 00:23:07,490 us that we did not deserve. 542 00:23:08,130 --> 00:23:12,530 But it's when we start to walk and think and believe a certain way 543 00:23:12,530 --> 00:23:15,650 that we have accomplished something, that we can fall into 544 00:23:15,650 --> 00:23:17,930 the trap of getting into that prideful spirit. 545 00:23:17,930 --> 00:23:21,250 So what do we do to combat ourselves against this level of pride? 546 00:23:21,250 --> 00:23:25,300 Well, we make sure that we put everything into a gospel perspective. 547 00:23:25,940 --> 00:23:27,060 What do I mean by that? 548 00:23:27,060 --> 00:23:30,020 I've been talking a lot about this, even on Sunday morning on, 549 00:23:30,020 --> 00:23:32,660 on the sermon with Eunice and Lois. 550 00:23:32,660 --> 00:23:35,220 It's seeing everything through a gospel lens. 551 00:23:35,460 --> 00:23:40,300 And if we see our accomplishments, if we see our families, 552 00:23:40,300 --> 00:23:44,620 if we see our houses, if we see our job, if we see any good thing 553 00:23:44,620 --> 00:23:47,720 in our life through the lens of the gospel, what we realize is 554 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:49,760 that we never really deserved any of it. 555 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:54,800 What do we deserve, Biblically speaking, in a theological sense, 556 00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:58,440 what do we deserve as human beings? 557 00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:02,880 Well, the Bible says for the wages or the payment of sin, which, 558 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:06,000 for all of sin to come short of the glory of God, what do I deserve? 559 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:07,520 The wages of sin is death. 560 00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:11,040 The only thing that I deserve is death. 561 00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:15,170 That's a hard pill to swallow for us in our society because we, 562 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:17,600 what we've been told throughout our whole lives is that, 563 00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:20,120 you know, we're pretty valuable in the sense that we're 564 00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:21,200 created in the image of God. 565 00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:24,880 We are valuable, but at the same time, we've marred the image 566 00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:28,120 of God by the sin that we have committed in our lives. 567 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:33,480 But the beauty is, and that's why Christians across the world celebrate 568 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,520 the gospel, is that the beauty is, is that though we've sinned, 569 00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:39,560 though we've all fallen short of the glory of God and deserve nothing 570 00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,960 in, in spite of that, God has extended grace to us and given us 571 00:24:44,350 --> 00:24:45,910 salvation and given us Blessing. 572 00:24:45,910 --> 00:24:50,070 And James 1:17 says that every good thing that comes down as a gift 573 00:24:50,070 --> 00:24:52,470 is coming down from God and is a blessing from God. 574 00:24:52,470 --> 00:24:56,310 And when we see it that way, every little thing that we have is 575 00:24:56,310 --> 00:24:57,230 a blessing from God. 576 00:24:57,310 --> 00:24:59,390 That brings us back to a place of humility. 577 00:24:59,550 --> 00:25:00,150 Meaning this. 578 00:25:00,150 --> 00:25:01,070 I didn't deserve this. 579 00:25:01,870 --> 00:25:03,070 It could be taken away. 580 00:25:04,190 --> 00:25:07,470 The reality is, is that God keeps us secure in our salvation. 581 00:25:07,630 --> 00:25:10,430 But the truth is, is that a lot of times when we feel entitled 582 00:25:10,430 --> 00:25:12,190 and we think that it's something that we've done and that 583 00:25:12,190 --> 00:25:12,980 we're better, we. 584 00:25:13,050 --> 00:25:17,330 Or that we've earned something by our works or by our attitude or 585 00:25:17,330 --> 00:25:20,410 by whatever we do in our life that we think brings value, then 586 00:25:20,410 --> 00:25:23,370 that's when we start to seep back into that level of pride. 587 00:25:23,370 --> 00:25:25,450 And so Saul thought, I did a lot of good things. 588 00:25:25,450 --> 00:25:26,570 Look, look how much I'm doing. 589 00:25:26,570 --> 00:25:28,850 And there's a justification to the pride. 590 00:25:28,850 --> 00:25:32,330 But we have to always go back to that Gospel perspective. 591 00:25:32,490 --> 00:25:35,370 And when we're resting in the Gospel perspective, we're a lot more 592 00:25:35,370 --> 00:25:38,770 likely to walk in fellowship with the Lord and humble ourselves 593 00:25:38,770 --> 00:25:43,370 instead of leading ourselves in a state of pride and basically 594 00:25:43,370 --> 00:25:44,450 self exaltation. 595 00:25:44,850 --> 00:25:47,970 So let's go to the rest of this passage, because it doesn't 596 00:25:47,970 --> 00:25:48,930 look good for Jonathan. 597 00:25:49,330 --> 00:25:52,530 It might mean that, you know, Saul maybe thinks that God's gonna 598 00:25:52,530 --> 00:25:55,970 kill Jonathan or that maybe Saul even needs to do it himself 599 00:25:55,970 --> 00:25:56,930 because he's the King. 600 00:25:57,170 --> 00:25:57,970 Verse 45. 601 00:25:57,970 --> 00:26:00,450 And the people said unto Saul, shall Jonathan die. 602 00:26:01,010 --> 00:26:02,690 So this is really unique. 603 00:26:02,690 --> 00:26:04,850 The people actually question their king. 604 00:26:05,660 --> 00:26:08,740 They say, really, Saul, are you going to really go through with 605 00:26:08,740 --> 00:26:09,020 this? 606 00:26:09,820 --> 00:26:11,580 Are you really going to kill Jonathan? 607 00:26:12,060 --> 00:26:12,700 He says. 608 00:26:13,100 --> 00:26:16,100 They say this, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? 609 00:26:16,100 --> 00:26:19,340 Meaning it was Jonathan who exercised faith, not you. 610 00:26:19,980 --> 00:26:24,380 It was Jonathan who we saw the power of God resting in when he went 611 00:26:24,380 --> 00:26:25,580 into battle, not you. 612 00:26:25,980 --> 00:26:28,100 And so they're really challenging the king here. 613 00:26:28,100 --> 00:26:31,830 They're saying, how could you kill him if you understand that it 614 00:26:31,830 --> 00:26:34,590 was really Jonathan, the one that was acting in faith. 615 00:26:34,590 --> 00:26:37,950 They say, God forbid, as the Lord liveth, there shall not one 616 00:26:37,950 --> 00:26:39,870 hair of his head fall to the ground. 617 00:26:40,030 --> 00:26:42,910 For if he hath wrought with God this day. 618 00:26:43,150 --> 00:26:45,950 So the people rescued Jonathan that he died not. 619 00:26:46,749 --> 00:26:51,670 And so the people stand up to Saul's foolish actions. 620 00:26:51,670 --> 00:26:55,630 They stand up to his pride, and they don't allow Jonathan to 621 00:26:55,630 --> 00:26:56,590 be executed there. 622 00:26:57,030 --> 00:26:57,190 They. 623 00:26:57,190 --> 00:27:01,150 They knew, they could see the reality that it was Jonathan that 624 00:27:01,150 --> 00:27:03,030 was walking with God and not Saul. 625 00:27:03,670 --> 00:27:06,710 And so for them to go with Saul, they would be the ones that 626 00:27:06,710 --> 00:27:08,750 were involved with this execution as well. 627 00:27:08,750 --> 00:27:10,390 And they say, we're not going to stand for that. 628 00:27:11,510 --> 00:27:12,470 And so there. 629 00:27:12,470 --> 00:27:15,430 There were some obvious reasons why they did that. 630 00:27:15,430 --> 00:27:19,190 Obviously, Jonathan didn't know that he was breaking this oath. 631 00:27:19,190 --> 00:27:21,310 The oath itself was a faulty oath. 632 00:27:21,310 --> 00:27:22,310 It wasn't from God. 633 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:22,760 And. 634 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:26,200 And ultimately we know that Jonathan was blessed by God in this. 635 00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:30,800 And so it was Jonathan's faith that brought the victory, not Saul's 636 00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:31,200 oath. 637 00:27:31,360 --> 00:27:32,600 And so they saw the. 638 00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:33,440 The difference there. 639 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:35,040 And so what do we see here? 640 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:37,040 We see that they stand up for him. 641 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:37,840 Verse 46. 642 00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:38,480 Then Saul. 643 00:27:38,559 --> 00:27:40,200 So what's Saul's response to this? 644 00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,160 Instead of saying, guys, you're right, I. I need to humble 645 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:43,600 myself. 646 00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:45,120 I need to get this right with God. 647 00:27:45,120 --> 00:27:46,640 Then Saul went up from the following. 648 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:49,280 Went up from following the Philistines, and the Philistines 649 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:51,840 went to their own place, meaning basically, Saul backs off. 650 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,400 And what we can see here is that they had a chance here in this 651 00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:58,280 very passage to wipe the Philistines out, which God called 652 00:27:58,280 --> 00:27:58,840 them to do. 653 00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:01,480 But yet we see that there could have been a greater victory 654 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:03,160 if Saul would have been walking with the Lord. 655 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:07,280 And so what we see through this passage here is that in many 656 00:28:07,280 --> 00:28:10,480 ways, Saul missed the greater victory that was available to him, 657 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:13,760 and he hindered the other people to see that great victory. 658 00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:16,640 So when we walk in pride, oftentimes we. 659 00:28:16,710 --> 00:28:19,270 We miss out on the greater blessings that God might have for 660 00:28:19,270 --> 00:28:19,990 us in our life. 661 00:28:20,230 --> 00:28:23,630 And we might, even if we have some level of leadership, we might 662 00:28:23,630 --> 00:28:26,310 even hinder other people from seeing that great victory in the 663 00:28:26,310 --> 00:28:28,870 Lord because of our foolish, prideful decisions. 664 00:28:29,270 --> 00:28:31,870 And so really, what we all need to do, what I need to do, what. 665 00:28:31,870 --> 00:28:34,950 What every believer needs to do, is come to a place to say what 666 00:28:34,950 --> 00:28:39,510 areas of my life is pride really coming into play and hindering 667 00:28:39,750 --> 00:28:42,070 the victory that God really has for me in my life? 668 00:28:42,700 --> 00:28:46,460 How many times have I missed the will of God in my life because 669 00:28:46,460 --> 00:28:49,020 of my prideful heart, because of my prideful decisions? 670 00:28:49,020 --> 00:28:50,620 And I don't feel like doing that. 671 00:28:50,620 --> 00:28:52,940 That doesn't seem to make sense to me. 672 00:28:53,500 --> 00:28:53,820 Or. 673 00:28:53,820 --> 00:28:57,540 Or maybe acting on something in pride and missing the blessing 674 00:28:57,540 --> 00:28:59,420 of just waiting and not moving forward. 675 00:28:59,820 --> 00:29:03,820 God works in various ways and in many ways because of our pride, 676 00:29:03,820 --> 00:29:04,780 we miss that. 677 00:29:05,420 --> 00:29:08,420 So we see more about Saul's victorious battles. 678 00:29:08,420 --> 00:29:09,180 Verse 47. 679 00:29:09,180 --> 00:29:13,900 So Saul took the kingdom over Israel and fought against all of 680 00:29:13,900 --> 00:29:15,780 his enemies on every side. 681 00:29:16,340 --> 00:29:19,500 Against Moab and against the children of Ammon and against Edom 682 00:29:19,500 --> 00:29:22,540 and against the kings of Zoba and against the Philistines. 683 00:29:22,540 --> 00:29:24,620 And with us, whoever he turned, he vexed them. 684 00:29:24,620 --> 00:29:27,700 Meaning Saul was a real problem for the people around him. 685 00:29:27,780 --> 00:29:33,100 I mean, even though Saul had a lot of pride and flaws that we see 686 00:29:33,100 --> 00:29:36,580 in his life, God still has a blessing upon him. 687 00:29:36,580 --> 00:29:37,060 He was. 688 00:29:37,170 --> 00:29:38,770 He was a strong military leader. 689 00:29:39,170 --> 00:29:42,930 And we see that he gave a lot of problems to the people around 690 00:29:42,930 --> 00:29:45,010 him, all these different groups of people. 691 00:29:45,010 --> 00:29:46,450 So we See that Saul is strong. 692 00:29:47,170 --> 00:29:49,410 We see that Saul has a lot of strength. 693 00:29:50,370 --> 00:29:54,370 But at the same time, how is Saul using that strength? 694 00:29:54,850 --> 00:29:58,290 Is he using that strength for the Lord or is he using that strength 695 00:29:58,290 --> 00:29:59,010 for himself? 696 00:30:00,130 --> 00:30:02,690 We're going to see that later on here in the next chapter. 697 00:30:02,690 --> 00:30:03,690 But verse 48. 698 00:30:03,690 --> 00:30:07,140 And he gathered in host and smoked the Amalekites and delivered 699 00:30:07,140 --> 00:30:08,460 Israel out of the hands of them. 700 00:30:08,460 --> 00:30:09,340 That spoiled them. 701 00:30:10,460 --> 00:30:12,300 So there are some victories here. 702 00:30:12,940 --> 00:30:17,500 But what we're going to see is that later on in this book of First 703 00:30:17,500 --> 00:30:20,940 Samuel that Saul misses the greatest victory that God has laid 704 00:30:20,940 --> 00:30:21,500 out for him. 705 00:30:21,660 --> 00:30:23,500 So it gives us a little character of. 706 00:30:23,500 --> 00:30:26,140 Of Saul there, but then it tells us more about his family. 707 00:30:26,380 --> 00:30:30,700 Now, the sons of Saul were Jonathan and Issue I and Melchi, 708 00:30:31,260 --> 00:30:32,780 Melchizedek. 709 00:30:33,010 --> 00:30:34,850 And the names of his two daughters were these. 710 00:30:34,850 --> 00:30:37,890 The name of the firstborn Merab and the younger McCall. 711 00:30:38,210 --> 00:30:42,570 And the name of Saul's wife was Ahinonam, and the daughter of 712 00:30:42,570 --> 00:30:43,490 Ahimaaz. 713 00:30:43,570 --> 00:30:46,810 And the name of the captain of his host was Abner, and the son of 714 00:30:46,810 --> 00:30:48,010 Nur, Saul's uncle. 715 00:30:48,010 --> 00:30:49,610 And Kish was the father of Saul. 716 00:30:49,610 --> 00:30:52,130 And Nur, the father of Abner was the son of Abil. 717 00:30:52,450 --> 00:30:53,370 Verse 52. 718 00:30:53,370 --> 00:30:55,010 This is the last verse in this passage. 719 00:30:55,010 --> 00:30:58,850 And there was sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul. 720 00:30:59,410 --> 00:31:02,770 And so we do see that throughout Saul's life there was 721 00:31:02,770 --> 00:31:06,610 always this ongoing conflict with the Philistines, which we know 722 00:31:06,850 --> 00:31:07,970 in greater. 723 00:31:08,210 --> 00:31:12,650 In the greater story of, of David and Goliath, that, that that 724 00:31:12,650 --> 00:31:14,930 battle was still raging with the Philistines. 725 00:31:15,650 --> 00:31:18,210 But we see here, and when Saul was. 726 00:31:18,290 --> 00:31:19,570 Saw any strong man. 727 00:31:19,570 --> 00:31:23,450 So anytime Saul sees anyone strong around him or any valiant 728 00:31:23,450 --> 00:31:26,890 man, he took him unto him, meaning there. 729 00:31:26,890 --> 00:31:29,370 There was a lot of insecurity with Saul. 730 00:31:29,370 --> 00:31:33,890 So when Saul saw anyone else strong, he tried to attack them. 731 00:31:34,290 --> 00:31:37,370 And sometimes that might be what God would have for him, and 732 00:31:37,370 --> 00:31:38,490 other times maybe it wasn't. 733 00:31:38,490 --> 00:31:42,770 But ultimately we see that Saul was not a man after God's heart. 734 00:31:42,770 --> 00:31:44,170 He was a man after his own heart. 735 00:31:44,170 --> 00:31:47,850 He was a man after his own passions and his own decisions. 736 00:31:47,850 --> 00:31:51,490 And that kind of kingdom does not stand because it's based in pride. 737 00:31:51,490 --> 00:31:56,940 And remember what Proverbs 16:18 said, Pride goes before destruction. 738 00:31:57,740 --> 00:32:02,780 And so one of the many reasons why Saul found himself in destruction 739 00:32:02,940 --> 00:32:07,340 and the kingdom being lost to his family was because of his pride. 740 00:32:08,540 --> 00:32:13,100 And so we're going to see that coming to pass completely in 1st 741 00:32:13,100 --> 00:32:14,220 Samuel, chapter 15. 742 00:32:14,300 --> 00:32:19,820 Because God wanted more than just outward adherence to what he 743 00:32:19,820 --> 00:32:20,580 called him to do. 744 00:32:20,580 --> 00:32:21,580 He wanted his heart. 745 00:32:22,550 --> 00:32:24,110 And that's how it is with all of us. 746 00:32:24,110 --> 00:32:26,150 God doesn't just want our outward actions. 747 00:32:26,870 --> 00:32:29,350 Sometimes we think that if we just check all of our boxes off, 748 00:32:29,350 --> 00:32:30,430 that God is pleased. 749 00:32:30,430 --> 00:32:34,190 But really, at the end of the day, God wants us to commune with 750 00:32:34,190 --> 00:32:36,630 him, to fellowship with him, to. 751 00:32:36,630 --> 00:32:38,950 To grow in a relationship with him. 752 00:32:39,830 --> 00:32:44,070 And so, like I said, verse chapter 15 in 1st Samuel is going 753 00:32:44,070 --> 00:32:49,370 to be a revelation or a manifestation of how weak Saul really 754 00:32:49,370 --> 00:32:51,490 was and how empty his heart was. 755 00:32:51,890 --> 00:32:55,010 And I'll read just the first few verses here because we're going 756 00:32:55,010 --> 00:32:55,890 to see kind of a. 757 00:32:55,890 --> 00:32:57,490 We're going to tee it up for next week. 758 00:32:58,050 --> 00:33:01,930 Samuel comes back and talks to Saul and remember who Samuel was. 759 00:33:01,930 --> 00:33:05,570 Samuel's role, Samuel was obviously he was a judge. 760 00:33:05,570 --> 00:33:08,610 Actually, the Bible tells us that he was a judge prior to Saul 761 00:33:08,610 --> 00:33:09,250 being king. 762 00:33:09,250 --> 00:33:12,890 But also, in many ways, Samuel was a prophet. 763 00:33:12,890 --> 00:33:16,690 He was the mouthpiece of God to Saul as the king. 764 00:33:16,690 --> 00:33:20,450 And so Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint 765 00:33:20,450 --> 00:33:23,010 thee to be king over his people, over Israel. 766 00:33:23,010 --> 00:33:27,650 So remember, Samuel is reminding Saul where he started. 767 00:33:27,650 --> 00:33:32,930 And if you remember back to when God calls Saul, he reminds Saul 768 00:33:32,930 --> 00:33:35,330 that, Saul, even though you're the king, I'm in control. 769 00:33:35,810 --> 00:33:37,250 You're not God over these people. 770 00:33:37,250 --> 00:33:40,370 You're king, but you always are going to be submitting to me 771 00:33:40,690 --> 00:33:41,070 now. 772 00:33:41,070 --> 00:33:44,160 So Saul has lost that perspective, and now Saul thinks 773 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:45,360 he's the absolute ruler. 774 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:48,600 So Samuel coming back is reminding him of that role that he 775 00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:49,680 has with the Lord. 776 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:53,040 He says, now, therefore, hearken thou unto the voice of the 777 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:57,240 words of the Lord, meaning it's time for you to listen to what 778 00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:58,800 God has for you to do. 779 00:33:59,200 --> 00:33:59,800 Verse 2. 780 00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:03,960 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did 781 00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:09,360 to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up 782 00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:10,040 from Egypt. 783 00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:11,720 Now, this is God's marching orders. 784 00:34:11,720 --> 00:34:14,720 He's very clear to Saul about what he should do. 785 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:20,320 He says, now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that 786 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:23,959 they have and spare them not, but. 787 00:34:23,959 --> 00:34:28,600 But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, 788 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:29,520 camel and ass. 789 00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:33,440 And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them at Tilliam. 790 00:34:33,879 --> 00:34:36,559 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah. 791 00:34:36,559 --> 00:34:40,919 Now we'll stop there because Saul has a decision to make. 792 00:34:40,919 --> 00:34:44,519 Is he going to obey God Now God has given him the command. 793 00:34:44,919 --> 00:34:46,999 God has given him the. 794 00:34:47,079 --> 00:34:48,919 The scope of the victory. 795 00:34:48,919 --> 00:34:52,959 The victory was not just to defeat them in a partial way, but 796 00:34:52,959 --> 00:34:54,479 to completely wipe them out. 797 00:34:54,479 --> 00:34:57,759 Now there's a lot of commentators that struggle with this 798 00:34:57,759 --> 00:35:00,399 passage, because a lot of times people will look at this and 799 00:35:00,399 --> 00:35:00,919 say, how. 800 00:35:00,999 --> 00:35:02,039 How unfair is that? 801 00:35:02,039 --> 00:35:04,679 That must not be the God of the New Testament, because the God 802 00:35:04,679 --> 00:35:06,260 in the New Testament was the of grace. 803 00:35:06,340 --> 00:35:10,180 He was not a God of judgment, but we see a God of grace throughout 804 00:35:10,180 --> 00:35:11,220 Genesis to Revelation. 805 00:35:11,220 --> 00:35:13,460 We see a God of judgment from Genesis to Revelation. 806 00:35:13,620 --> 00:35:16,620 This is God enacting judgment against people who had rejected him 807 00:35:16,620 --> 00:35:18,180 and fought against his people. 808 00:35:18,740 --> 00:35:22,660 So the marching order from God, who was holy, righteous, eternal, 809 00:35:22,660 --> 00:35:24,900 has said, Saul wiped them all out. 810 00:35:25,780 --> 00:35:26,980 Don't ask questions. 811 00:35:27,540 --> 00:35:29,060 Don't come up with your own plan. 812 00:35:29,220 --> 00:35:34,880 And Saul really has a choice here to obey God or he has a choice 813 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:37,000 to think about what makes sense to him. 814 00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:40,480 And we're going to see that his heart of pride and his selfishness 815 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,760 really manifests itself in this next chapter, which we're going 816 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,680 to really see that there's judgment upon him. 817 00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:49,280 He's already made the wrong decisions and lost the opportunity 818 00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:50,280 to keep the kingdom forever. 819 00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:54,800 Now what we see is that Saul, even though he heard from God that 820 00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:58,200 the kingdom would leave his family, Saul's not going to give 821 00:35:58,200 --> 00:35:58,480 up. 822 00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:02,320 We know that Saul fights tooth and nail to keep the. 823 00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:04,480 The crown and his family. 824 00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:08,480 And we know that that's going to fall to the wayside and be for 825 00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:09,680 not because God's in control. 826 00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:14,280 And we see countless times in Saul's life where he tries to dictate 827 00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:18,600 to God what to do or tries to fight against what God has for him 828 00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:19,680 and what God has promised. 829 00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:21,000 And again, that's a. 830 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:21,800 That's a heart of pride. 831 00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:25,160 A heart of pride is always going to be saying, I think I know 832 00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:25,480 better. 833 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:28,760 I think this makes more sense. 834 00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:31,720 So therefore, I'm going to act this way, even though I've heard 835 00:36:31,720 --> 00:36:32,520 it in another way. 836 00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:34,000 So how does that look for us? 837 00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,440 Because like many of us probably haven't had a guy named 838 00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:36,880 Samuel. 839 00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:40,040 Maybe you have, but maybe you haven't had an old man named Samuel 840 00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:42,440 come up to you and give you exactly what you're supposed to do 841 00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:43,880 by wiping out the Amalekites. 842 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:47,200 Okay, but how does God speak to us today? 843 00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:49,720 Well, predominantly God speaks to us through his work. 844 00:36:51,260 --> 00:36:55,580 So if we were to equate Saul's situation to our situation today, 845 00:36:56,060 --> 00:36:59,860 it would be that when God speaks to us through His Word, are 846 00:36:59,860 --> 00:37:04,060 we going to respond without asking questions and trust in faith 847 00:37:04,060 --> 00:37:07,060 and work and obedience, or are we going to look at God's Word and 848 00:37:07,060 --> 00:37:09,940 say, I know that it says this, and I know that you Call me to do 849 00:37:09,940 --> 00:37:14,140 this, but it makes more sense to do that, or I'm going to go ahead 850 00:37:14,140 --> 00:37:16,860 and go above and beyond the word of God and make my own oath 851 00:37:16,860 --> 00:37:19,430 and make my own decisions and make my own way. 852 00:37:19,430 --> 00:37:23,070 And ultimately what happens is that as a Christian, many times we 853 00:37:23,070 --> 00:37:26,510 fall into that trap of seeing thus saith the Lord, but yet we come 854 00:37:26,510 --> 00:37:31,230 up with every justification not to obey God or maybe to partially 855 00:37:31,230 --> 00:37:31,870 obey God. 856 00:37:31,870 --> 00:37:35,510 And if any of you have ever had kids, you understand that you 857 00:37:35,510 --> 00:37:39,110 want to teach them not just to partially obey, but to obey completely. 858 00:37:39,910 --> 00:37:43,230 You know, sometimes, you know, if you're pressing somebody and they 859 00:37:43,230 --> 00:37:47,130 tell you a part truth, like half truth, those. 860 00:37:47,130 --> 00:37:50,930 Those half truths are just as bad because sometimes there's just 861 00:37:50,930 --> 00:37:52,810 enough truth to kind of bring some validity. 862 00:37:52,810 --> 00:37:55,010 But at the end of the day, there's some really big things that 863 00:37:55,010 --> 00:37:55,890 are being left out. 864 00:37:56,130 --> 00:37:59,050 So what we see here is that God is not just wanting us to partially 865 00:37:59,050 --> 00:37:59,730 follow him. 866 00:37:59,810 --> 00:38:03,250 God wants us to give up, give our whole hearts over to him as. 867 00:38:03,250 --> 00:38:06,650 As we see with the replacement for Saul, and that would be David. 868 00:38:06,650 --> 00:38:09,250 Though again, I have to repeat this over and over again. 869 00:38:09,250 --> 00:38:12,610 When we talk about Saul and David, we don't see one king who 870 00:38:12,610 --> 00:38:17,040 was sinless and one king who was just completely sinful and prideful. 871 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,160 We see two kings dealing with sin later on. 872 00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:24,720 David deals with pride, but there's a difference in how he responds. 873 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:29,400 And we'll look at some of the psalms that correspond with David's 874 00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:32,400 story, and we see his heart of brokenness where we don't see that 875 00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:35,320 with Saul, we don't see Saul just sitting there broken and repentant 876 00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:36,640 and communicating with God. 877 00:38:36,640 --> 00:38:40,200 We see Saul actually pushing away from God in many cases, when 878 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:43,310 God comes and judges him and reveals his sin. 879 00:38:43,630 --> 00:38:46,190 And I think that's another biblical lesson for all of us to 880 00:38:46,190 --> 00:38:49,790 take, is that being a Christian is not about being perfect. 881 00:38:50,750 --> 00:38:53,830 I wish I could tell you that if you just try really, really hard 882 00:38:53,830 --> 00:38:56,190 and love God enough, you'll never sin again. 883 00:38:56,350 --> 00:38:58,990 But the truth of the matter is that we're fighting against the old 884 00:38:58,990 --> 00:38:59,230 man. 885 00:38:59,230 --> 00:39:00,510 We're fighting against the flesh. 886 00:39:00,670 --> 00:39:04,590 So a mark of a biblical Christian is not just sinless perfection, 887 00:39:05,070 --> 00:39:08,230 but a mark of a biblical Christian is how we respond to when 888 00:39:08,230 --> 00:39:10,630 God reveals those sins in our life. 889 00:39:11,510 --> 00:39:13,190 How do we deal with conviction? 890 00:39:13,190 --> 00:39:15,830 I think one of the major things that gets overlooked within 891 00:39:16,230 --> 00:39:20,870 the American church, within the church at large, is the biblical 892 00:39:20,950 --> 00:39:24,310 definition and really the biblical mandate of how a Christian 893 00:39:24,310 --> 00:39:26,350 should respond to conviction. 894 00:39:26,350 --> 00:39:28,310 Because a lot of times we run away from conviction. 895 00:39:28,710 --> 00:39:32,430 If a pastor preaches too hard about a certain sin, we, you know, 896 00:39:32,430 --> 00:39:32,950 call him. 897 00:39:33,030 --> 00:39:34,910 You know, he's just narrow minded. 898 00:39:34,910 --> 00:39:36,750 He's, he's on a soapbox today. 899 00:39:37,470 --> 00:39:39,590 And sometimes pastors can go too far. 900 00:39:39,590 --> 00:39:42,350 Sometimes they can take it over the Bible and put their own 901 00:39:42,350 --> 00:39:45,750 imparted decisions and wisdom upon certain preaching. 902 00:39:45,750 --> 00:39:46,830 But what I would say is this. 903 00:39:47,710 --> 00:39:50,670 Sometimes what we see is that when conviction comes, people turn 904 00:39:50,670 --> 00:39:53,470 away and run or reject it or mock it. 905 00:39:53,790 --> 00:39:56,270 But biblically speaking, when the conviction of the Holy Spirit 906 00:39:56,270 --> 00:39:58,910 comes, we're supposed to embrace the conviction and actually 907 00:39:58,910 --> 00:40:02,670 allow the conviction to teach us where to change and where to turn. 908 00:40:03,230 --> 00:40:05,310 And so conviction is not something that we should run away 909 00:40:05,310 --> 00:40:05,630 from. 910 00:40:05,630 --> 00:40:07,510 Conviction is actually something that we should welcome 911 00:40:07,510 --> 00:40:11,190 and celebrate and eventually find comfort in when we come back 912 00:40:11,190 --> 00:40:12,510 to the Lord in repentance. 913 00:40:12,990 --> 00:40:15,150 And, and that's something that we need to talk about. 914 00:40:15,150 --> 00:40:16,590 It's something that we need to preach about. 915 00:40:16,590 --> 00:40:20,550 It's something that we need to live in, is understanding and embracing 916 00:40:20,550 --> 00:40:21,630 biblical conviction. 917 00:40:22,510 --> 00:40:26,150 If you don't know about that, read, read some of the psalms that 918 00:40:26,150 --> 00:40:29,590 David writes after his episode with Bathsheba. 919 00:40:29,910 --> 00:40:31,510 I mean, he's torn up with it. 920 00:40:31,830 --> 00:40:33,030 But there's hope. 921 00:40:33,430 --> 00:40:34,070 There's hope. 922 00:40:34,070 --> 00:40:37,950 And so the response of a biblical Christian to sin is not 923 00:40:37,950 --> 00:40:39,430 to push away, because that's pride. 924 00:40:39,510 --> 00:40:41,670 That's Saul going, nope, don't want that. 925 00:40:41,670 --> 00:40:43,110 I'm going to find my own way. 926 00:40:43,190 --> 00:40:44,710 I'm going to work it out myself. 927 00:40:45,590 --> 00:40:49,350 The biblical response, the proper response to conviction in 928 00:40:49,350 --> 00:40:53,070 our life is to embrace it and allow the Lord to teach us, comfort 929 00:40:53,070 --> 00:40:54,470 us, and guide us to truth. 930 00:40:54,630 --> 00:40:57,710 One of my favorite passages of Scripture is found in 2nd Timothy 931 00:40:57,710 --> 00:40:58,230 3, 16. 932 00:40:58,780 --> 00:41:00,900 All scripture is given by inspiration of God. 933 00:41:00,900 --> 00:41:04,460 And it's profitable for doctrine, that's teaching, for reproof, 934 00:41:04,460 --> 00:41:07,580 telling us where we're wrong, for correction, how to get that right, 935 00:41:07,580 --> 00:41:10,140 and for instruction and righteousness, meaning how to walk 936 00:41:10,140 --> 00:41:10,940 in that path. 937 00:41:11,340 --> 00:41:13,420 And so it's a relationship with the word of God. 938 00:41:13,660 --> 00:41:16,300 It's, it's a response to the word of God. 939 00:41:16,940 --> 00:41:19,660 And so I would challenge you here this evening to inspect your 940 00:41:19,660 --> 00:41:19,820 life. 941 00:41:19,820 --> 00:41:22,700 I know that's something that I'm doing, inspecting my life to 942 00:41:22,700 --> 00:41:26,820 see where those little areas of pride start to reel, rear their 943 00:41:26,820 --> 00:41:28,100 ugly head up, okay? 944 00:41:28,100 --> 00:41:30,340 And when we see that pride, just to squash it. 945 00:41:30,340 --> 00:41:31,580 And how do we squash it? 946 00:41:31,580 --> 00:41:33,660 We go back to that Gospel perspective. 947 00:41:33,660 --> 00:41:36,780 We submit ourselves to the Lord and realize that he's in control. 948 00:41:36,780 --> 00:41:38,140 I am not the king of my life. 949 00:41:38,540 --> 00:41:41,660 Saul had to realize that, yes, he was the earthly king of Israel, 950 00:41:41,660 --> 00:41:43,580 but he was not the spiritual king of Israel. 951 00:41:44,220 --> 00:41:47,540 And though I am responsible for the decisions that I make in 952 00:41:47,540 --> 00:41:50,140 my life, I am not the ultimate king of my life. 953 00:41:50,140 --> 00:41:52,060 The ultimate king of my life is Jesus Christ. 954 00:41:52,550 --> 00:41:53,910 And I submit myself to him. 955 00:41:53,910 --> 00:41:57,150 And that's the challenge that all of us must come to when it comes 956 00:41:57,150 --> 00:42:01,150 to that pride that we all probably face in our life, to some 957 00:42:01,150 --> 00:42:01,750 capacity. 958 00:42:01,910 --> 00:42:04,790 And where I'm tempted to find myself, I'm not prideful when I go 959 00:42:04,790 --> 00:42:07,310 into a situation that's beyond my comfort zone. 960 00:42:07,310 --> 00:42:11,390 Okay, so let's say, for example, I'm going into a workplace 961 00:42:11,390 --> 00:42:13,390 that I'm not aware of and I don't know anything about. 962 00:42:13,390 --> 00:42:14,670 I'm not going to be prideful in that. 963 00:42:14,670 --> 00:42:16,790 I'm going to be very humble and say, I have no idea what you 964 00:42:16,790 --> 00:42:17,590 guys are talking about. 965 00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:19,040 I'm going to trust you guys. 966 00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:23,160 But where I'm tempted, okay, Personally, where I'm tempted to 967 00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:26,520 find myself in pride is in areas that I'm comfortable with and 968 00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:27,440 I know a lot about. 969 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:31,600 That's when sometimes I do fall into a sense of pride, because 970 00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:32,400 I can do this. 971 00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:33,640 I've done this a hundred times. 972 00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:34,960 I've done this a thousand times. 973 00:42:35,120 --> 00:42:36,800 And I don't need God for this. 974 00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:40,480 But that's the very moment that Satan gets a grip and a foothold 975 00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:40,920 in our life. 976 00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:43,720 And that's when we start to drift, is when we think that we don't 977 00:42:43,720 --> 00:42:46,020 need God, but we need God every single day. 978 00:42:46,020 --> 00:42:46,740 I love that song. 979 00:42:46,740 --> 00:42:48,300 I need the every hour. 980 00:42:48,940 --> 00:42:49,900 And you know, I. 981 00:42:50,140 --> 00:42:52,860 When I sing that song, I always in my own mind and I don't 982 00:42:52,860 --> 00:42:54,940 sing it out loud, but I think about I need you every second. 983 00:42:55,580 --> 00:43:00,660 Because daily, hourly, I find myself in temptation to fall back 984 00:43:00,660 --> 00:43:01,500 into that pride. 985 00:43:02,460 --> 00:43:04,380 So may we all think about that as we. 986 00:43:04,460 --> 00:43:05,580 As we go about our week. 987 00:43:06,380 --> 00:43:09,020 Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church 988 00:43:09,020 --> 00:43:09,580 podcast. 989 00:43:10,090 --> 00:43:12,250 I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you. 990 00:43:12,890 --> 00:43:15,170 If you would like to find out more information about our church 991 00:43:15,170 --> 00:43:18,650 or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org 992 00:43:18,890 --> 00:43:21,450 or find us on Facebook or YouTube. 993 00:43:22,250 --> 00:43:26,690 You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch 994 00:43:26,690 --> 00:43:31,130 dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow 995 00:43:31,130 --> 00:43:33,930 along for future podcast and updates. 996 00:43:34,570 --> 00:43:35,530 Thank you so much. 997 00:43:35,770 --> 00:43:36,490 God bless. 998 00:43:36,730 --> 00:43:38,010 Have a wonderful day.