evening if you would at this time take your hymnals and turn to him number 60 60
song service in Jesus name I pray amen song if you would turn in your
hymnals to him number 209 sunshine in the soul him number 209 sunshine in the
soul go ahead and start there right on the first there's sunshine in my soul
today please raise your hand and an usher will bring you one the front is
our Bible memory passage of the week Galatians chapter number one verse 11
the inside you'll see our service times listed Sunday mornings at 1030 a.m.
evenings at 430 p.m. and our Wednesday evening service at 7 o'clock and our
soul winning times are listed there below and seems like we've been having
even more times than this so maybe we could add those pretty soon as well but
soul winnings been great nursing home ministry schedule below that for the
upcoming weeks and below that you'll see our year to date statistics it's going
really well in March so far 47 salvations been very receptive lately and
one of our soul winners told me it's been the most fruitful seven days of his
life so praise the Lord for that it's been really good soul-winning definitely
keep it up on the right please be in prayer from this Whitney Reid for her
pregnancy also our upcoming events on April 13th we're gonna have another men's
preaching night after the evening service and it's gonna be 15 minute
sermons for now unless we get just tons of people that are gonna sign up and
then after that we'll have a potluck on April 19th we're going to have an Easter
soul-winning marathon in OKC April 20th that's Easter we're gonna have the Lord
Supper after the evening service just be prepared for that May 16th through the
18th is the King James Conference in Vancouver Washington May 31st is the
Durant Oklahoma soul-winning marathon and Pastor Shelley told me that it's
gonna be an army that he's bringing so really looking forward to that should
have a very fruitful weekend there June 28th that weekend we have a couple
things the Tinker Air Show is a fellowship event for our church and then
on the 29th we're having Brother Ben Naim from Steadfast Baptist Church
preaching for us the AM and PM service so do come and join us for that it'll be
a great weekend August 27th through the 31st is the Fire Breathing Baptist
Fellowship at Steadfast and October 6th through the 11th is the Bahamas mission
trip looking forward to that some information about giving there on the
back you'll see our prayer list there has been a couple of additions brother
Myles Hausberg his health has been declining pretty severely I believe he
recently had a stroke and was in the hospital and so we're praying for him
and also for Miss Rhea as she's having to make some difficult health care
decisions for him so be in prayer for both of them and also Mrs. Sean Furze
praying for her granddaughter Hadley that her pre-k enrollment would be
denied that way that Hadley can be homeschooled and not have to go to
public school so those are the additions for that and still praying for Jennifer's
uncle and Alex's work situation all those other prayer requests seem to be
current so at this time we'll go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer. Lord we do
thank you for this day we thank you for the joy of salvation for the Word of God
for our church for these wonderful hymns that we could sing and for the
opportunity to pray to you and ask things of you God. We just pray now for
our brother Myles that you would bless him that you help him with his health
problems that he's been having as a challenge facing him and we pray
especially for Miss Rhea who has to be going through a difficult time. I just
pray that you would put your love and comfort in her heart Lord and that you
just give her wisdom on how to take care of him and the different decisions that
she has to be making soon. Please bless that family God. We also play pray for
Mrs. Sean Furze's granddaughter Hadley just that things would go according to
your will with that that if possible Lord her pre-k enrollment would be denied
that way she could go to be homeschooled and not have to be under the influences
that are in public schools these days Lord just pray for that child that you
bless her Lord and we also pray for Miss Jennifer for her uncle just pray that
you'd strengthen him to just keep giving him the will to fight and that you would
heal his body help him to get the best care possible and pray for that
situation to go well Lord we also pray for brother Alex Lee that you bless him
in his career path and his job search the things would go well for him and we
also pray for Miss Remy to have safety travels she'd have a good time with
family she bless her visa situation according to your will she would also
heal her body of her tumor and we pray for all those in our church of family
members that are unsaved specifically Whitney's family members and brothers
acts pray that you would please soften their hearts to the gospel and help us
to be faithful witnesses to our family and Lord we thank you for the
salvations that our church has been having lately Lord I pray that you would
continue to have us be fired up to preach the gospel and we do pray for
more laborers to come with us and preach love you and Jesus name we pray amen all
right at this time we'll go to our third song right at this time for a third song
if you would actually take your white handouts and turn to psalm chapter 149
psalm chapter 149 in the white handouts psalm 149 we'll go ahead and start there
right on the first as the offering plates are being passed around in your
bibles the first Samuel 31 first Samuel chapter number 31 good evening first
Samuel 31 the Bible reads now the Philistines fought against Israel and the
men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount
Gilboa and the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons and the
Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi Shuah saw sons and the battle
went sore against Saul and the archers hit him and he was sore wounded of the
archers then said Saul unto his armor-bearer draw thy sword and thrust
me through therewith lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through
and abuse me but his armor-bearer would not for he was sore afraid therefore Saul
took a sword and fell upon it and when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead
he fell likewise upon his sword and died with him so Saul died and his three sons
and his armor-bearer and all his men that same day together and when the men
of Israel were on the other side of the valley and they that were on the other
side Jordan saw that the men of Israel fled and that Saul and his sons were
dead they forsook the cities and fled and the Philistines came and dwelt in
them and it came to pass on the morrow when the Philistines came to strip the
slain that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa and they
cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent into the land of the
Philistines round about to publish it in the house of their idols and among the
people and they put his armor in the house of Ashtaroth and they fastened his
body to the wall of Bethshan and when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard
of that which the Philistines had done to Saul all the valiant men arose and
went all night and took the body of Saul and the body of his sons from the wall
of Bethshan and came to Jabesh and burnt them there and they took their bones and
buried them under a tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days. That's about our heads
forward prayer. Father in heaven we thank you for this day. We thank you for our
pastor that has finished this book with us in First Samuel and we ask that you allow the last
chapter of this book to be blessed and that you would help us to learn from your word. We love you and do you some good things. Amen.
Amen. Alright well we are in the last chapter of First Samuel. Made it all the way to the end here and it's a
pretty quick chapter so shouldn't be too long this evening but really in this
chapter the Bible is gonna finish off focused in on Saul and if you remember
the last time we saw Saul was when he went to inquire at the witch at Endor
and let's go really quickly to First Samuel 29 and we'll remind ourselves of
where he picked up with Saul in First Samuel chapter 29 verse 15 we read and
Samuel said to Saul because he had kind of conjured up Samuel in this weird event
with the witch why has thou just quieted me to bring me up and Saul answered I am
sore distressed and it's important to remember that because that's the state
of mind that we're gonna see him in in chapter 31 why it says for the
Philistines make war against me and God is departed from me so I can see where
he's coming from because you know if you're gonna be at war when people are
coming to try to kill you and you know that God has departed from you yeah
that's a pretty hopeless situation and answereth me no more neither by profits
nor by dreams therefore I have called thee that thou mayst make known unto me
what I shall do then said Samuel wherefore then dost thou ask of me seeing
the Lord is departed from thee and is become thine enemy you know that's some
strong language to use especially about someone who's a child of God someone
who's saved but yet we see in this book King Saul going from someone that was
super humble even though he was head and shoulders above the people physically
and he may have had a reason to take pride in himself from a carnal
perspective he was humble he was godly he was a great leader he was fighting the
Lord's battles and so God blessed him because of that yet here at the end of
his life he stands as the enemy of God you know that's pretty sobering situation
he's in and look at verse 19 this is Samuel saying to Saul moreover the Lord
will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines and tomorrow
shalt thou and thy sons be with me go back to 1st Samuel 31 so tomorrow is now
at that time in 1st Samuel 31 this is that tomorrow where Samuel said hey you
know what God has departed from you yet you are the enemy of God and so God is
going to allow the armies of Israel to be delivered into the hands of the
Philistines and you know what you are going to die you know that's not really a
positive message right but it's the truth and you know the Bible is full of
just some pretty gnarly ugly truths but yet if it's true it's true right verse
one says this now the Philistines fought against Israel and the men of Israel
fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa you know
it's really sad when God's people are the ones that are fleeing when God's
people are the ones that are falling down slain before the enemy you know it
should always be the opposite right because who's really greater in power and
strength those that have the Lord or the world but yet we see a situation here
where God's people God's chosen nation the leader that was at one point
ordained by God is now fleeing before the Philistines now go to Leviticus
chapter number 26 there's an interesting dichotomy that you see in the Word of
God and it's this that if God is for you no one could be against you if you have
God on your side you need not worry about the power and strength of the
enemy how many assets they have coming against you if you've got the Lord on
your side you are good to go but on the other hand no matter what kind of
strength you have no matter what kind of might money weapons power from a carnal
perspective if God is against you you are in a hopeless situation and that's
really what Saul is in right here he's done the the hammer is about to drop
there's no more time for repentance and crying and being sorry and trying to
change God has made his decision and there's nothing that could prevent it
it's just a done deal but look at Leviticus 26 verse 3 it starts with this
very important word you should always note this word when you read this in the
Bible if there's lots of if then statements in the Bible let's read verse
3 if you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and do them then I will
give you rain in due season and the land shall yield her increase and the trees
of the field shall yield their fruit and your threshing shall reach unto the
vintage and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time talking about you know
providing having enough food having the things that you need says and you shall
eat your bread to the full so not even just having enough but actually just
having plenty you know this is one of the results of if you keep the
commandments of God and dwell in your land safely see dwelling safely and being
at peace as a nation is a blessing from God and one of the surest ways that you
could try to have peace in your life is to make sure that you're following the
commandments of God that if you're hearkening to the voice of the Lord if
you're diligently keeping his commandments then God's gonna do these
things but we don't want to get presumptuous and just think like God
will always take care of America no matter what cuz we're America no
America needs to fear God our nation needs to say hey we should keep the
commandments of the Lord keep the statutes of the Lord if we want to have
peace in our land and you know thank God that throughout our history at least in
this land we have had a lot of peace but you know what that doesn't mean that
that's guaranteed for forever you know people get what's called a normalcy bias
where they just live their daily life and here we are you know I'm 27 years
into my life and I've never seen war I've never seen anything crazy like that
right but just because you've lived this long and it hasn't happened doesn't mean
that it can't happen and you know no matter what your status of in life is
whether you think man I'm doing great financially I'm in a nice house I'm
dwelling securely things are going good for my family my community my job you
got never just get comfortable and think it'll always be that way you always have
to have this mentality of your mind well if we keep God's commandments then
there's those promises given to us and that's what we should think of as a
nation as a whole look what it says and I will give you peace in the land verse
6 and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid and I will rid evil
beasts out of the land neither shall the sword go through your land and you shall
chase your enemies and they shall fall before you by the sword see that's how
it should be that's why when you read for Samuel 31 and you see Wow God's
people are falling and dying before the enemies of God why is that happening
well a lot of it has to do with how Saul was leading the nation and how he had
done what he had stopped following the commandments of God you know he was
supposed to go wipe out the Amalekites and he held back he was supposed to not
be committing murder and trying to kill David right and yet he was doing that
he was ordering them to kill the priests of the Lord you know he had
clearly stopped following God and says this is verse 8 notice this verse and
five of you shall chase in hundred and in hundred of you shall put ten thousand
to flight and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword for I will have
respect unto you and make you fruitful and multiply you and establish my
covenant with you see it's not about strength or might or numbers or anything
like that we as God's people just got to worry about one thing fearing God and
keeping his commandments because when you fear God and keep his commandments
it says that five can chase a hundred and in hundred of you shall put ten
thousand to flight you know I think about how we're in a spiritual battle and
how we go out we preach the gospel we're engaged in the spiritual fight you know
just a few number of us here in this church you know we can get thousands and
thousands of people saved right but you know how we're gonna get the most people
saved is not just going out soul winning but also us being a righteous group of
people a people that fears God a people that wants to keep his commandments
that's how we're gonna be the most successful in the spiritual battle and
you look at great people doing I mean think of the people you know that are
getting the most people saved you know what I know about them they're godly
Christians that keep his commandments they're not just saved but they're also
separated you know evangelist Duncan urbanic you know contrary to our
testimony you know I actually don't think that the Philippines is exactly
like the US I think that he actually sacrificed a lot to go there and preach
the gospel but you know what that's that's an amazing thing that he did he's
a godly man he's sacrificing he's living a separated life and he's getting a ton
of soul saved while doing it you know evangelist Matthew or I'm sorry pastor
Matthew Stuckey he's a pastor now you know that guy gave up a lot he gave up
live seeing his friends and family in the United States moving far away from
home I mean that's hard to do you know I've moved far away from home but still
within the same country where I could hop on a plane and see them pretty soon
like he's moving across the world but these godly men that made these
sacrifice you know what they're doing they're slaying thousands and thousands
and thousands and thousands spiritually they're doing a great work and you know
what the enemies are falling before them they're not falling before the enemies
So this is a great promise from God. Let's see this again in Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter number 8. Look at verse 31 of Romans 8. It says,
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ."
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's some great scriptures right there.
You know, those are some beautiful verses to know that nothing can separate us from the love of God
and that if God is for us, who can be against us?
You know, that even applies to a little church like this.
You know, if we have God on our side, it does not matter how many haters there are.
It doesn't matter how many railers. It doesn't matter how many online trolls.
It doesn't matter how many, you know, wicked backslidden pastor's wives.
It doesn't matter about the government.
It doesn't matter about whoever wants to come against us.
If God's for us, who can be against us?
No one can be against us.
Now, what about the converse of this, right?
Because both of these are taught in the Bible.
That if you're saved and if you're righteous, then man, even just five could chase a hundred.
Even just a hundred could chase a large number.
But the converse is true as well. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 32.
You see, what if you're saved? Well, the good news is you're always saved. You know, there's that.
But if you're saved and you're wicked, if you're saved and you're like Saul, you've forsaken the way of God,
you've forsaken the commandments of the Lord, what does it look like for that person?
Deuteronomy 32 verse 15, "But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.
Thou art waxed and fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness."
So get the picture here, God has blessed these people greatly.
And you often see this in Christians' lives that they'll get saved and at first they will start turning things around.
They will start going to church. They might even start being free to thrive.
They might even, you know, read the Bible cover to cover or learn how to go soul winning.
But as a result of that, what happens? God blesses you.
Because that's what happens when you serve God, is he blesses you.
But sometimes, God blesses you and you wax fat and you're praying for a good job and you've got a good career.
And you're praying for a wife and God gave you a wife.
You know, you're praying for a vehicle and God gives it to you.
But sometimes when people wax fat, they can't handle it.
And look what it says right here. It says, "Then," so after the blessings,
"then he forsook God, which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation."
You know, this is exactly what happened to Saul.
He started off right. He started off great.
Like when we were talking about the earlier parts of this book,
it was all about how like, wow, he was a great leader.
He was so humble. He's considerate of other people.
He's willing to fight God's battles.
But then what happened is God made him the king.
God blessed him. God gave him all these great things.
But his heart departed from the Lord.
He forsook God. He forsook keeping his commandments.
Look at verse 16. It says,
"They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods,
with abominations. Provoked they him to anger."
So notice they're saved, but they're provoking God.
You know, you think it provoked the Lord when Saul
commanded for the priest of God to be murdered?
You think that provoked the Lord a little bit?
You know, do you think it provoked God to see
Saul trying to kill Jonathan and David?
I guarantee you it did. Verse 17,
"They sacrificed unto devils."
Boy, wasn't he involved in witchcraft?
I mean, this sounds like him to a T.
"Not to God, to gods whom they knew not,
to new gods that came newly up,
whom your fathers feared not,
of the rock that begat thee, thou art unmindful,
and hast forgotten God that formed thee."
Okay, all of this context is really important
to understand the next verse.
Because in Leviticus, I showed you,
if you're following the commandments,
all these great things are going to happen to you,
you're going to be blessed, you're going to chase your enemies.
Then right here in Deuteronomy 32,
it's you've forsaken God, you're pissing God off,
you're sacrificing to devils, you're doing wickedly.
Then it says in verse 30, "How should one chase a thousand
and two put ten thousand to flight,
except their rock had sold them and the Lord had shut them up?"
Now there's a couple of ways that people look at this verse.
One way is to say like what we just talked about in Leviticus
that one of God's people is chasing a thousand of the wicked
and that two of God's people is chasing a thousand or ten thousand
of the wicked and putting them to flight.
That I believe was taught in Leviticus.
But this right here I believe is teaching the converse, okay,
that how should one wicked person chase a thousand of God's people?
How is that possible?
And two of the wicked put ten thousand to flight except their rock.
See, the there is referring back to the ten thousand.
The there is referring back to the thousand.
That's God's people.
And who is the rock?
Who does the rock belong to? God's people.
Their rock.
How should one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight
except their rock had sold them and the Lord had shut them up?
See, if God sells you out, like Samuel said to Saul,
that tomorrow the people of God, the Lord's armies,
are going to be sold up or delivered up into the hands of the Philistines.
How is it that the Philistines can be God's people?
Well, if God delivers them, if God had sold them,
and if God had shut them up, then guess what?
Even one wicked Philistine could chase a thousand of God's people
that are pissing God off, that are making God angry,
that are not right with the Lord, and two of the wicked
can put 10,000 of God's people to flight when God delivers them up.
See, God is the one that has, you know, our destiny in His hands.
And by our actions, we can influence how He works.
It's not like Calvinism, that He's predetermined you're going to be bad,
or predetermined that you're going to be good.
But like, His response to how you act is already preset.
If you're wicked, if you forsake God, if you don't follow His commandments,
you know what? The blessing of God is not going to be on your life.
It's not like there's exceptions to that.
But if you're righteous, if you're pleasing God,
if you're walking in the ways of the Lord, then just one of God's people,
just five of God's people can destroy any enemy.
Why? Because the power of God is on their side, right?
There's a spiritual warfare going on here that's not just pure carnality and flesh.
Go to James chapter number four, James chapter number four.
I mean, think about just David and Goliath.
I mean, this is just a perfect example of this.
From a carnal perspective, without God helping David,
there's no way David would ever win that fight.
I mean, we had Brother Daniel come up here and deadlift
what was just Goliath's coat of armor around his chest, right?
I mean, the guy was as tall as our ceiling versus just a little lad.
How is it that David beat Goliath?
Well, because the Lord was on his side.
Because David said, "Hey, I'm coming to you in the name of the Lord.
I'm going to cut your head off so that all the earth may know
that there is a God in heaven," right?
That's why God gave him the victory.
But with Saul, you know, it's different.
With Saul, he's forsaken God.
He's made God angry.
And so now God's people are being sold into the hand
of the Philistines.
And you know, what's crazy about this story is, like,
the Bible is just real.
In 1 Samuel 31, it's not a happy ending.
It's not, "Well, and then at the last second, everything got fixed,
and it all got better, and they lived happily ever, ever after."
No, this is a story to make God's people afraid of God
and realize, like, yeah, you're saved.
Praise God.
You're saved, you're always saved, but, you know,
if you try to live a wicked life like Saul,
you could end up in destruction and defeat just like Saul.
And Saul is not like, well, happy ending.
No, it's Saul gets told God's departed from you.
You're an enemy of God.
You're going to be delivered up into the hands of the Philistines,
and tomorrow you're going to be with me,
and he ends up committing suicide.
The end.
That's the end of 1 Samuel in the Bible.
You know, that's to get us to fear the Lord
and realize that, hey, if God's on our side,
no enemy can stand against us.
But if God's against us, any enemy can destroy us.
If God's against you, I mean,
I'd be afraid to walk outside with this wind.
It might just blow you into traffic.
I mean, God could do anything he wants to you
if you have pissed him off if he's against you.
James chapter 4 verse 1.
"From whence come wars and fighting among you?
Come they not hence, even of your lusts
that warn your members?
Ye lust and have not."
Man, wasn't Saul lusting for more glory
when the ladies were singing about David in a higher number?
"Ye kill," he did that,
"and desire to have and cannot obtain.
Ye fight and war.
Ye have not because ye ask not.
Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss
that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world
is enmity with God?
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world
is the enemy of God.
Here's the truth is that once you're saved,
you're always saved.
But even Christians can live a wicked enough life
to become the enemy of God.
I mean that's what the Bible says right here.
That someone who is a friend of the world
is the enemy of God.
What's scary about that verse is it doesn't say,
well yeah, I mean if you're a serial murderer
and a serial rapist and just this incredibly
terrible blasphemer then you're the enemy of God.
It says like if you're even a friend of the world,
you're the enemy of God.
I mean that's a high level of separation
that God expects for his people.
You know, God does not want us to have
affinity with the world.
You know, he wants us to love the world in the sense
that we want to go get them saved, warn them about hell,
tell them about the savior that died for them,
plead for them to believe the gospel.
But you know what?
God does not want us to be friends with the world.
God does not want us holding hands and joining with false religion
or just these ecumenical movements that happen today.
You know, back in the day, the Billy Graham Crusades
where Billy Graham would get up and he would have altar workers
where it's like Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist,
Church of Christ, Catholic, hardcore Pentecostal,
oneness heretic.
You know, he had all these people here and people were just like,
"Oh yeah, you know, it's a great movement of God."
No, no, no.
We're not even supposed to be friends with the world.
And let me tell you what unsafe people are.
The world.
Or sometimes worse if they're reprobates than the children of the devil.
But you know, that's what Saul had become.
He had become the enemy of God.
Now, you're there in James, so flip a few pages back to Hebrews 10.
Hebrews 10.
And keep your place in Hebrews 10.
If you've got a finger in 1 Samuel 31, you can go back to that,
but we're going to come right back to Hebrews 10.
Verse number 2 in 1 Samuel 31 says,
"And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons,
and the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchishua, Saul's sons."
You know, Saul had become the enemy of God, and not only did he suffer,
but he caused other people to go down with him.
And here's the truth, just one of the scariest things about sin,
about living a wicked backslid in life, is that your sin affects other people.
Man, you know, people today are so selfish,
and just self-absorbed, and just only thinking about themselves,
that they'll go live a wicked life, they'll commit grievous sins,
and they'll actually think in their deceived, prideful mind,
"Oh, it's only affecting me. What's the big deal? It's just me."
But the truth is, it's not just you.
You know, no one in this Christian life just lives on an island.
Your sin absolutely will affect other people.
I mean, think about Christians that go out and commit just grievous sin, like fornication.
You don't think that that's going to affect other people when that sin comes into a church.
You commit fornication and then we have to throw someone out.
You don't think that'll affect the church, having like a major event like that happening.
You know, you don't think that it would affect the work of God,
having one less soul winner doing the work of God.
You better believe it affects other people.
Hebrews 10 verse 23.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for he is faithful that promised.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.
You know, if you like underlining in your Bible,
you should just underline this like five times, super bold, circle it,
whatever you got to do.
Let us consider one another.
We live in a self-obsessed day and age,
where it's all about how many selfies can I take,
and just worrying about myself, my mental health, my happiness,
my career, my joy, my adventures.
But the Bible says, "Let us consider one another."
And you know, when someone was serving God,
was on the right path, was doing the right things,
but they backslide, they stop,
they become friends with the world,
you know what you're not doing?
You're not considering other people.
You know, they're not considering church.
People will just, you know, they went to church for years.
They were free to thrive for years.
And then all of a sudden, they're just gone for years.
And it's like, where did those people go?
But let me just tell you something about those people.
And I love people.
I love Christians.
And I say this in love because I want them to change their life and get right with God.
But you know what?
If you just quit on church, you're not caring about other people.
You're not being considerate of your brothers and sisters in Christ.
You're not thinking of the fact that, hey, my brothers are going to war.
My brothers are going out to battle.
And I'm sitting back here at home on my lazy butt doing nothing.
And I know what that is that's not being considerate of others.
And it's always like, oh, I can't come back to church because I have all these problems and I have all these issues.
It's like, who cares about you?
Sorry to say it.
You know, that's the attitude you should have about yourself.
And I'm not saying I don't care about you.
I love you. I care about you.
That's why I'm telling you the truth right now.
But you know the attitude you should have for yourself is who gives a rip about me?
You know what the apostle Paul said?
"Neither count I my life dear unto myself."
Oh, your dear little precious life.
Oh, the drive's too far. Who cares how long you're driving?
Oh, you know, it's just too much time.
Every second you have on this earth was given to you by God.
Oh, I'm just dedicating too much time to church.
Oh, are you just ready to die and go to heaven then?
Like, why even live?
Like, why even exist but to serve God?
What is there to do in this world besides serving God?
Are you gonna go watch March Madness?
Lame.
You gonna go like golfing or something?
Like, what are you gonna do with your life?
All of that stuff is vanity.
It's empty.
And I'll tell you what, yeah, we have pleasures in this life.
There's things that we enjoy.
But do any of those things come close to scratching that itch in your soul
as serving the Lord Jesus Christ?
Does any of the carnal pleasures, oh, a Netflix show.
Oh, you know, getting your nails done.
Oh, you know, eating a brisket sandwich.
Look, there's nothing wrong with those things necessarily.
But do any of those come close to reading the book of John?
Do any of those come close to fellowship with God's people?
Do any of those come close to calling upon the name of the Lord
with a law center that was on their way to hell and getting them saved?
Does anything come close to that?
But you know, people, they get so selfish and self-centered
and only thinking about themselves, and they get backslidden,
and they fail to consider one another.
And they fail to provoke others unto love and unto good works.
See, my life is not just about me.
My life is to consider other people to provoke them to love and to good works.
You know, you don't think that if I just quit today, stop soul winning,
that that might affect some people? It sure would.
But guess what? So would you.
That's what you've got to understand, is that you quitting would do the same thing.
You backsliding, oh, you used to be free to thrive,
now you just kind of show up every once in a while.
You know, that attitude of apathy and not caring about the things of God.
Have you ever considered that that might rub off on other people?
Have you ever considered that, yeah, maybe sometimes you're tired on Sundays,
but what about the young kids in our church?
Do you want to be a good example to them that say,
hey, I know this guy works really hard.
Hey, I know this guy puts in a lot of hours.
I know he's providing for his family, but here he is Sunday morning, Sunday night,
Wednesday night, soul winning, serving in church.
Those are people that kids are going to look up to and emulate.
But if we've got a church full of selfish people that are only considering themselves,
being lazy, doing whatever their flesh wants,
then that's the Christianity that we're going to breed.
That's going to be the next generation.
You know what? We need to think about others in here.
We also need to think about others that haven't even been born yet.
Why don't we think about the next generation of Christians?
What are we going to build here to leave for them?
Let's consider others. Let's consider them.
And, of course, verse 25, a very famous verse, says,
"Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together."
Why? Because that's a pretty good example of not thinking about other people,
is when you quit church, or when you get backslidden
and stop going as much as you used to.
As the manner of some is, but exhorting one another,
and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Man, Christianity is exciting, and it never gets old,
and year after year, you know, I love it that we're doing the same things,
reading the Bible still, going to church more, or we're going to church still,
we're going soul-winning still, but I just love how this attitude that we're supposed to have
is that so much the more. You know, we're supposed to abound more and more in our love,
in our good works, and you know, that is something we should strive for.
Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 31. So Saul, man,
he wasn't considering other people when he as the king decided to live a wicked life,
was he? Now, there lies his son, dead. Now,
there lies his armor bearer, dead and soon he will be too. And the battle
went sore against Saul and the archers hit him
and he was sore wounded of the archers. You know,
realize that these stories read in the Bible, you know, put some flesh into it.
Think about this happening to you. It's like, oh yeah, he was wounded. I mean,
he just got shot with an arrow and he was sore wounded. He's probably in excruciating
pain. He's probably suffering immensely,
you know, getting close to death. Boy, I wouldn't want to be the enemy of God.
Even as God's child, I wouldn't want to be his enemy because
Saul saved, but how would you like to go out like this? Where you're
sore wounded and you're just in excruciating pain and you're just slowly
dying. I mean, this is one of God's children here, but he was an enemy of God
and he's suffering greatly. And I tell you, I dead sure wouldn't want to be
an enemy of God in the sense that reprobates are the enemies of God.
Because boy, do those people often have a wicked, horrific end of their lives.
I mean, I'm thinking of a guy right now who I've been praying against for years consistently.
Why would you pray against someone? Oh, okay. I'm glad you asked.
Number one, he stole like $150,000 from a soul winning King James only hard preaching church.
He filed fraudulent documents with the Secretary of State claiming to be the director of that church
and was trying to petition the government to shut down that corporation and to destroy the church.
Not only that, this person sent me a letter from an attorney firing me from my job.
Firing. Demanding me to turn in my keys at Steadfast and turn in all my Steadfast property and stuff like that.
Went after us for years. Lied about us for years.
This is a guy that at one point I thought was someone to look up to.
I mean, I'm just going to admit to you right now, everyone's like, "Oh, I saw that guy coming a mile away."
I didn't see this one coming. And I went soul winning with this guy every Saturday for a long time.
And I had no clue how wicked he was. Turns out he became this total Judas, stealing money,
you know, doing all these wicked, terrible things, being a railer.
And right now, he's dying a slow, miserable, painful death of a rare, skin-eating disease.
And it's severe, extremely severe, where doctors are bewildered.
They said they've never seen anything like it. They said there's only 70 people on earth that have it.
And it's like, I'm just telling you, I wouldn't want to be the enemy of God.
And, you know, he's making all these posts or someone on his behalf is saying like,
"Oh, you know, keep praying. Your prayers have been such a blessing to him."
No, actually, my prayers have not been a blessing to you.
My prayers are the reason you're in the situation you're in.
And by the way, I'm praying that you die very quickly because I would hate to see poor, innocent people
that don't know what a wicked piece of trash you are give their hard-earned money to you
as your last little snatch from people's souls before you die and go to hell.
You say, "Who are you talking about?" I'm talking about Ryan Gallagher, the failed evangelist
that was sent out of Sure Foundation Baptist Church to go start a church in Hawaii
and failed and quit and had all this impropriety with money
and then came and stole money from Steadfast Baptist Church.
That guy is a wicked piece of garbage who's going to spend eternity in hell.
And I'm just telling you, I would not want to be the enemy of God.
I'll tell you this, I would not want to be the enemy of a soul-winning church
because if God's for us, who can be against us?
I would not want to be the enemy of a man of God praying for you in an imprecatory way.
You know, you should want the man of God praying blessings on your life.
And sometimes, you know, you just see these situations and it's just so grievous.
You're just thinking like, "How could someone get away with that?"
I mean, could you imagine anyone in this room and you're just like,
"All right, you just wake up. I don't know what I'm going to do today.
I'm going to go steal $150,000."
How do you think that would end for you?
You would be thrown in jail, right?
All of us, God would be like, "Get over here. Boom!"
He would be punishing us so hard, right?
But oftentimes, God doesn't chastise the wicked right away.
He kind of lets them live for a while.
But boy, when he drops that hammer, he drops it hard.
And then they spend eternity in hell. The end.
And it's like, Saul, it's kind of the same thing.
The saving grace for Saul is thank God he was saved.
And Saul right now, no pain. It's all bliss.
It's all good. He's in heaven. Everything's good.
But you know what? His life carnally here really sucks how it ended.
Where you're just surrounded by the enemies of God.
I mean, think about the fear when you're just surrounded by heathen reprobates
that are ready to kill you, ready to tear you apart, ready to hurt you.
Then you see your son slain before your eyes.
Then you see your armor bearer slain.
Then you get pierced with the arrow and you're wounded, sore, and you're dying and suffering in pain.
I wouldn't want to be that person.
Look at verse number four. It says,
"Then said Saul unto his armor bearer, 'Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith,
lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me.'
But his armor bearer would not, for he was sore afraid.
Therefore Saul took a sword and fell upon it."
So notice how Saul is so terrified here of the possibility of the Philistines taking him
and just torturing him and abusing him, and who knows what these wicked people would do unto him.
By the way, torture is wicked and evil, and Christian nations should not exercise torture.
If someone's guilty, find them guilty and give them the death penalty, but you know what?
Torture is just cruel and gross and not something that a Christian nation should do.
But he's afraid of it, and so he's like, "Hey, armor bearer, you know, at this point the armor bearer hadn't died yet."
He's like, "Please thrust me through. Please just kill me."
And he's like, "No, I'm not going to do that," which is obviously the right thing to do.
You know, the Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill." But then Saul falls upon the sword and takes his own life.
Go to John chapter number 10, John chapter number 10.
Now, I don't want to spend too much time on this, but obviously, I mean, this should be very evident to everyone,
suicide is obviously a sin. You know, the Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill."
That applies to other people. That applies to yourself.
So, you know, as God's people, we should never commit suicide. There's never a reason you should do that.
But here's the question. If someone commits suicide, will they still be saved?
You know, this is a big point of contention for Catholics and just a lot of just unsafe people will say,
"Oh yeah, that's an unforgivable sin. If you commit suicide, you won't be saved."
Well, how do we know that's not true? Well, just this book alone teaches that it's not true.
Because Samuel said that tomorrow you'll be with me.
So unless you're going to say that Samuel was in hell, then that wouldn't make any sense, right?
Then as well, of course, the New Testament teaches that you can never lose your salvation.
John 10 verse 27, Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me,
and I give unto them eternal life.
And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
Notice Jesus' promise to those that believe in him is not temporary life.
It's not life until you sin, right?
It's eternal life.
And he says that no one can pluck him out of his hands.
No one can be plucked out of God's hands.
You know, that includes yourself.
Because, you know, people come up with all these weird theoreticals.
Well, you know, what if you jumped out of, you know, God's hand?
Or like, what if you just gave your salvation back?
What if you returned it?
It's like, that's not in the Bible.
What the Bible actually says is eternal life.
By the way, man, we can't stress this enough to people out soul winning
because if someone believes that they could lose their salvation,
what they're saying is that they have to keep doing good works to stay safe.
So it's just another way of saying, yeah, salvation is by works.
That's what they're saying.
Even though at the front end of the gospel, sometimes people will say,
salvation is by faith. Oh, it's a free gift.
Oh yeah, it's not of works. Oh, can you ever lose it if you do something bad?
Oh yeah, of course. I mean, if you don't do good works, you lost your salvation.
It's like, you don't understand what free is. You don't understand what grace is.
Right? It is completely free. You don't have to stop sinning to be saved.
You don't have to want to stop sinning to be saved, whatever the heck that means.
This weird false prophet, Stacy Shiflett, getting up saying like,
"Oh yeah, you know, you can't have your sin and Jesus. I'm not saying you have to completely stop sinning, but you have to want to."
It's like, what are you talking about?
Like, find me in the Bible, like, you have to want to stop sinning to go to heaven.
I could show you like, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
That's the Bible. But, you know, what does he appeal to?
He appeals to this tough country boy. You got to want to.
I'm so serious about it, I'm going to take off my glasses as I'm going to sit here and lecture you about how salvation is by works.
You're such a freak, man. You're such a loser.
Why don't you actually use the word of God that says it's a free gift?
I mean, Romans 5, it's like free gift, free gift, free gift.
Ephesians, it's free, it's by grace, it's not of works.
Galatians 2, 16, the apostle Paul's like pulling out his hair.
It's like, "We believe in Jesus Christ, and it's not of works.
By the way, it's not of works, and it's not of works, and it's not of works."
I mean, the apostle Paul's is like so repetitive in that verse.
But even as repetitive as the New Testament is, boy, do people still preach false doctrine.
This is why you got to read the Bible.
Because everyone's going to go around and say, "Oh yeah, if you commit suicide, you could lose your salvation."
Says what Bible verse?
Have you ever noticed that the Catholic Church never appeals to the Bible?
It's always like, "Well, you know, the Catholic fathers, well, my traditions, well, my church."
The Church, it's like, what about the Word of God?
They never appeal to the Bible because they don't respect the Bible.
The Catholic Church respects man.
And even when they do, by chance, give you a Bible verse, they'll say,
"The Catholic Church gave you the Bible."
Weird, because the Bible says that the less is blessed by the better.
So you're saying, like, the Catholic Church is the ultimate authority,
and the Catholic Church graced us with the Word of God.
It's like, no, actually God gave us the Word of God, not the Catholic Church.
You know, the Catholic Church does have the Bible
in the sense that they could have access to the same Bible we have, right?
They could go buy a King James Bible if they want to.
But you know who gave them that? God.
You know who tried to ban that? The Catholic Church did.
So don't say you're going to lecture us, "Oh yeah, if you commit suicide, you're going to hell."
No, actually, you're going to hell for being a Catholic.
That's the truth, is that if you continue to trust in your works, you're going to hell.
Meanwhile, Saul did commit suicide and is in heaven right now.
And by the way, Saul was wicked, yet he's in heaven.
Why? Because it's not of works, it's a free gift.
Go back to 1 Samuel 31, 1 Samuel chapter number 31.
It says in verse 5, "And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and died with him."
So, you know, this armor bearer was very loyal and, you know, seeing his master do this, he did the same thing.
Verse 6 says, so notice the death count here.
So Saul died and his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men that same day together.
Sounds like your sin affects other people, right?
It's not just Saul that paid the price, it's Saul and his armor bearer and his son and all his men.
They all died because of his terrible, wicked decisions.
And, you know, if you are a leader in any way, shape or form,
you've got to be afraid of the consequences of your sin, not for yourself necessarily only,
but how about for your wife? How about for your children?
Again, what does this come down to? Considering other people.
You know, oh, okay, you lazy, backslidden husband that's not spiritual, you don't want to serve God.
Okay, what is that going to do to your wife? What is that going to do to your kids?
You know, do you care about them?
I would rather a man not be that jazzed about the things of God,
but you know, fake it till you make it, at least for his wife and kids,
than be one of these wicked people that just don't consider others,
and then they pay the price. Verse 7.
I mean, get the picture here, the glorious nation of Israel,
the one that is God's chosen people, God's nation,
at one point, you know, Saul was God's king, chosen by God,
and now what are they doing? They're forsaking their own cities.
They're forsaking their own land. They're just giving it up to the Philistines for them to inhabit.
You know, this is another lesson we could learn from this story,
is that not only will sin just affect other people,
but sin will also destroy the work of God.
Sin will destroy the work that you're trying to build in your life.
You know, we're not going to just build some absolute powerhouse,
great church here, when it's just full of grievous sin.
Like we talked about, look at the guys that are getting tons of people saved right now,
doing great works for God. You know what you notice about them?
Living a separated life. Living godly in Christ Jesus.
You know, separation, repenting of your sins, living a good life.
Of course, none of that's for getting to heaven, being saved,
but you know what, it is still super important.
And those that desire to do a great work, and to build something for God,
and to fight his battles, and to do something for him,
you know what you're going to have to do? You're going to have to live a separated life.
You know, this is a requirement to do something great for God.
Go back to 1 Samuel 14, and let's remind ourselves of where
this nation was at at one point, compared to the end of this book.
1 Samuel 14, verse number 46.
"Then Saul went up from following the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place.
So Saul took the kingdom over Israel, and fought against all
his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon,
and against Edom, and against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines.
And whithersoever he turned himself, he vexed them.
And he gathered in host and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel
out of the hands of them that spoiled him."
Notice, when he was right with God, what happened?
He's destroying the enemies of God.
Everywhere he goes, he's vexing them, right?
And he's just chasing after them and destroying them, and leading the nation to victory.
But as he sins, as he gets backslidden, notice his work gets destroyed.
And even though he had beaten the Philistines in times past, now they're beating him.
Now they're beating God's people.
In 1 Samuel 13, I want to read a verse for you in Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 6.
It says, "Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroyeth much good."
You know, what you have to realize is that, yes, at one point God's people here were doing great.
They were leading the charge.
Saul was destroying the enemies of God.
But one sinner destroyeth much good, just like he led the nation to good things, to great things.
He also was the one sinner that led to its destruction.
And how we could apply that is understanding this.
Just because things are going good today, just because you've been a disciple in the past,
just because you've served God in the past, does not guarantee that you're just going to be this awesome person for the rest of your life.
And you know, quite honestly, I am more concerned with the rest of my life than the past.
Remember, we're not going to sit here and hang on the past.
We're not going to beat ourselves up for the bad.
We're not going to sit here and just glory and revel in the good.
Like, for the most part, I just want to forget the past and focus on the future.
But you know, you're not guaranteed, just because you've done right in the past, you're not guaranteed to be awesome in the future.
Every single day, you know, you got to take inventory of your life and make sure you're doing the right things.
I like how that verse said wisdom is better than weapons of war.
You know, where was the nation of Israel at at one point?
First Samuel 13 verse 19.
Now there was no Smith throughout found throughout all the land of Israel for the Philistine said,
Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears.
But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share and his culture and his acts and his mattock.
And they had a file for the mattocks and for the cultures and for the forks and for the axes and to sharpen the goads.
And so it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people
that were with Saul and Jonathan but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.
Notice at one point the situation from a carnal perspective was so bad for the nation of Israel that they really only had weapons with Saul and with Jonathan.
Everyone else is trying to like make do with these farming equipment, trying to sharpen them and stuff like that.
But yet they still won anyways. Why? Back to point one when God was on their side.
And it doesn't matter about their physical strength and their weapons and their might.
Wisdom is better than weapons of war. And you know that for us in our lives that should be the primary focus of our life.
Are we pleasing God? Are we doing things right? Not you know how much money do I have? How strong am I?
Things from a carnal perspective. Go to Romans chapter number two. Romans chapter number two.
So you know by the end of this book the tables have completely turned.
God's people were destroying the enemies of God even without a lot of weapons, even without a lot of might.
And you know they grew and he you know got exalted to king and exalted to power and glory.
And yet at the end they're getting destroyed by God's people.
Romans two verse six talks about God in verse six who will render to every man according to his deeds.
To them who by patient underline this word continuance in well-doing seek for honor and glory and immortality, eternal life.
See again it's not about oh I used to be good, oh I used to serve God, I used to be free to thrive, I used to be a soul winner.
What about continuing? That should be the goal in your mind is not like yeah I did something for God once in my life.
No it's like let's continue doing stuff for God, let's continue being a great nation, let's continue having God on our side.
Let's continue being righteous kings, like that should have been the mentality.
Not just oh we did it one time, but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.
Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile.
But glory, honor and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.
Notice this, for there is no respect of persons with God.
You know, it's not like Saul is just God's little favorite chosen boy for forever
and he's already been chosen king, so he's good to go, he's got a past.
No, no, no. God's going to judge every man according to his works.
And guess what? There's no respect of persons with God.
So again, this is kind of one of those dichotomies in the Bible where it's like,
"Okay, great, there's no respect of persons with God. That means he could use me.
That means he could use you, right? If you follow God's commandments.
If you seek to please him and do what's right. God's not a respecter of persons.
He's ready to use anyone. He's ready to use everyone that's got a humble heart,
ready to serve him. Then you could flip that around and say, "Okay, God's not a respecter of persons."
Meaning, when I sin, when I do wickedly, if I stop following the Lord,
if I became an enemy of God, then you know what? I'm going to get the anger of God against me too.
And the same thing goes for every single person in this room.
So, God is not a respecter of persons, whether you're a king, a pastor, a dad, a housewife,
whatever you are, God is going to judge you according to your works.
And so, obviously, Saul did not take that to heart.
1 Samuel 31, let's go back there, 1 Samuel 31, verse 8 says,
"And it came to pass on the morrow, or when the Philistines came to strip the slain,
that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa.
And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armor,
and sent into the land of the Philistines roundabout to publish it in the house of their idols and among the people."
You know, like I said, this is not a happily ever after story.
It's like, Saul was good, he got promoted king, he got the nation to victories,
and at the end, he's getting his dead body's head removed from the rest of his body,
and it's getting paraded around by the Philistines, the end, let's have a word of prayer.
You know what I mean? Like, that's the end of the book, is that he gets his head cut off,
and they're publishing it in the house of their idols.
You know, I don't know about you, but I don't want to become an enemy of God to where my story,
my proverbial head, if you were, was carried around and paraded by the enemies of God.
Like, look at this, look at this failure, look at this person of God who was supposed to be great,
feed us and then they're just parading him around.
You know, I think about that hymn,
take the name of Jesus with you.
Take it everywhere you go.
You know, this is another thing.
You can look at it two ways.
Hey, take the name of Jesus with you.
Be a good example.
Be a good ambassador for Christ.
Have the light of the gospel shining.
Be a light in this earth.
Be salt and light in this earth.
And the other thing is, if you're wicked and you're sinful,
you're still taking the name of Jesus with you
because you're saved and you're always saved.
And so you gotta think about that all the time.
It's like, hey, I've got the name of Jesus attached to me.
I'm a representative of God.
I am an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't want to end this way.
Verse number 10, and they put his armor
in the house of Ashtaroth,
and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan.
And when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard
of that which the Philistines had done to Saul,
all the valiant men arose and went all night
and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons
from the wall of Bethshan and came to Jabesh
and burnt them there.
You know, definitely an act of fidelity and of grace really
for Saul who had done a lot of wickedness,
but still his brethren were really willing
to risk their lives just to bring his body back
after he was dead.
Definitely a gesture of goodwill there.
It says verse 13, and they took their bones
and buried them under a tree at Jabesh
and fasted seven days.
Go to Matthew chapter number five.
We'll go a couple more places
and then we'll finish this evening.
So let's make some application
when it comes to this chapter.
'Cause like I said, it's like, wow,
that's quite a way to end the story.
Getting your head chopped off, the end.
But you know, the way we can think about this
is for our lives, we are eternally secure.
But even though we're eternally secure,
how we live our life matters.
I mean, that is one of the things,
you look at Saul's life, hey, he's in heaven.
He's with Samuel, praise the Lord.
But how he lived his life affected him greatly.
Look at Matthew chapter five verse 19.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least
of these commandments and shall teach men so,
he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whosoever shall do and teach them,
the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Now, the carnal mind would think that this verse
would be written way different than this, right?
The unsaved, they would think like,
oh, if you break God's commandments
and you're teaching people to break God's commandments,
you'll be going to hell.
That's what they would probably think, right?
But it says if you break the least of God's commandments
and you're teaching other people to do so,
you're going to be least where?
In the kingdom of heaven.
You're still saved, but you know what you are?
The least in the kingdom of heaven.
And here's the thing, Saul may have been a king
on this earth, but I'm telling you right now,
he's not going to be reigning very high in heaven
because he lived a sinful life.
He did not finish well.
He did a lot of extremely wicked things.
But it says, but whosoever shall do and teach them,
the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
See, even though we're saved by faith,
even though it's not of works,
even though no matter what you do, you'll always be saved,
there's still a reason to serve God on this earth.
There's still an incentive and a motive to do good works
and to serve him.
One of those being that if you do great works,
you're going to be great in the kingdom of God.
You're going to be rewarded for your labor on this earth.
And you know, there's really a couple motivations
for doing it.
One is just love of God.
Hey, God saved me, I didn't deserve it.
I love him for that and I want to serve him from that.
But on top of that, he rewards us.
I mean, that's a great blessing.
And the unsaved, they can never understand this.
And I've even heard this out soul winning.
They're like, if you don't think good work saves,
what are you even doing here?
Like they think it's so crazy that you would go out
on a hot day or on a cold day to their part of the ghetto
to preach them the gospel.
And they're thinking, well, the only reason
I would ever do that is so that I could escape hell.
Why would these people who don't think you have to do
good works be doing good works?
Well, a couple reasons.
We love God.
Crazy concept, right?
Actually loving God.
Not just like, oh, I want to escape hell.
I want to escape hell.
But beyond that, I love God.
And on top of that, I want great rewards in heaven.
What else is there to live for?
What else is there to do in this life?
I want to start stacking up cash in heaven.
Nuts to the US Federal Reserve notes backed on nothing.
Nuts to all that.
I'm stacking cash in heaven.
It's like going to be one of the episodes of Cribs
from back in the day or whatever.
Hey, we're building our crib right now.
You know, we're going to be great in the kingdom of heaven
by doing great works.
Secondly, I want you to think about this.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter four.
It's not about how you start, it's about how you finish.
You know, I would rather have a terrible start in life.
I would rather be like the apostle Paul, who was a Pharisee.
He was a persecutor.
He was a blasphemer.
He was injurious, he said.
Yet later on in his life, he became the greatest evangelist.
He did the most works for God.
He finished his course.
You know, he ended his life well.
It's more important how you finish than how you start.
And a lot of people, they want to get so hung up on, "Oh man, you know, I got saved when
I was 50 years old.
You know, a lot of my life is behind me.
What's the point?"
It's like, no, no, no.
It's not about how you start.
It's about how you finish.
Not everyone's going to get saved at six years old like, you know, a lot of pastors have
been.
Praise the Lord for that.
It's a blessing.
I mean, I wish I was saved at six years old.
I got saved when I was 16 years old and I'm thinking like, man, how great would it have
been to have another decade plus before that?
Some people get saved in their teens.
Some people are 20s.
You know, some people in their 80s.
But what should someone do?
What should someone do if they got saved at 80 years old?
They should finish well.
They should say, all right, God's given me a few days left and I'm going to use these
few days left on this earth to serve God with all my heart and to do works for him.
While you're there in 1 Timothy 4, Ecclesiastes 7 and 8 says, "Better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit."
You know, the end of something is better.
The latter part of something is better than the beginning.
You know, anyone can just get married, but you know, not everyone stays married.
You notice that?
Anyone can get married, but not everyone has a good marriage.
You know, anyone could just start a church, especially in the United States.
It's not like they actually care that you're ordained.
They don't actually care that you believe the right doctrine or something like that.
It's like, anyone could just start a church.
But you know what?
We don't want to just start Anker Baptist Church.
We want it to grow into a great church.
We want the latter years to be blessed.
We want to be getting tons of people safe, not just like, well, you know, we started
a church.
That doesn't mean anything.
Oh, you know, like, oh, I became a pastor.
It doesn't mean anything.
We need to do some works.
We need to keep that going.
Second Timothy 4.6 says, "For I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departure
as that hand."
I have fought a good fight.
I have finished my course.
I have kept the faith.
Wouldn't you like to someday look at death approaching you and say with utter confidence,
I've fought a good fight.
I've finished my course.
I have kept the faith.
Wouldn't you like to have that peace and serenity and confidence as you face death knowing,
I didn't waste my life.
I didn't care about riches and pleasure and vanity and just wasting my days, pleasing
myself.
And as death approached the Apostle Paul, he could say, I've fought a good fight.
I've finished my course.
I've kept the faith.
Do you think Saul could have said those words?
Do you think Saul had any peace in his heart whatsoever?
No, Saul is terrified.
Saul's literally going to a witch because he's so scared that God's departed from him
and he's thinking this is the end and he's freaking out and then he dies a horrible
death.
You know, that's the end.
Whereas the apostle Paul, I mean, he's just stoic, steadfast.
He's facing death and he's like, I fought a good fight.
I finished my course.
I've kept the faith.
Verse eight, why is he so confident?
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous
judge shall give me at that day and not to me only, but unto all them also that love
his appearing.
Just, just think about, you know, the comparison of these two people here.
It's like you got Saul who was very self-willed.
He wanted to rebel against God, he wanted to do his own thing, he didn't care that he
wasn't supposed to be the person doing the offering of God, he just did it anyways.
Just ordering people to be killed, just attacking David.
He's just not considering others, he's just living whatever he wants to do.
He's in charge, he's making the shots, but then his life ends in utter destruction and
he's probably very poor in heaven.
Then you have another guy, the Apostle Paul, who laid down his life for the gospel.
I mean, he's just getting beat up all the time, he's suffering, he's getting betrayed,
and how did he care about his life?
Was he a self-willed person or did he say like, "Hey, I don't count my life dearer
to myself."
But then he ends with peace, with strength, with calm, and with the promise of a crown
of righteousness being laid up for him in heaven.
What is that?
That's him being great in the kingdom of heaven.
That's him having rewards in the kingdom of heaven.
And you know, Christians that are already saved, they have two choices.
They have the choice to be self-willed and do their own thing and serve their flesh and
just live a wicked sinful life and just party on this earth.
And then when they get to heaven, be poor and have nothing and waste their life.
Or we could choose now to be a living sacrifice, to live for God, to yield our members for
righteousness to serve the Lord and even though we're sacrificing and even though in our flesh,
we're thinking like, "Why am I giving up my youth to do this? Why am I giving up the days of my life
and my health to serve God when I could be doing so many other things?" No, no, no. That's not vain.
That's not for nothing. You know, your work is not in vain in the Lord. You're going to receive a
great crown in heaven someday for that. So, you know, when we look at this book, Saul is a cautionary
tale. Don't be a Saul. Don't be a Saul. Don't end your life this way. End your life with peace,
with confidence, and how are you going to do that? It's called being steadfast, starting today,
and serving the Lord continuously until you finish the fight. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, we
thank you for the book of 1 Samuel and the great doctrines and lessons found therein. I pray that
this church would not just be content with, "Oh, we started a church," but that we would fight for
this church every day, that we would fight to preach the gospel to the lost souls of this city,
that we would fight against sin in our own hearts, in our own lives, in our own families,
that we would strive to please you and to do good and to the bitter end so that we can die with that
confidence knowing that we've done the right thing. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
For our last song, if you would at this time, take your hymnals and turn to hymn number 169.
Come Thou Fount, hymn number 169. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
Come thou fount of every blessing to my heart, to my grave. Dreams of mercy never ceasing.
Call for songs of loudest praise. Each beat's song might flit upon a pious interpose. It's just lucky to be good to be true.