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of this evening, welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. If you would at this time, take your
hymnals and turn to him number 260. He is able to deliver the hymn number 260 in your hymnals.
We'll go ahead and start there.
Tis the grave
Look to the
In Jesus name I pray. Amen. For our next song if you would turn in your hymnals to hymn number 209
Sunshine in the soul
Hymn number 209 sunshine in the soul
We'll go ahead and start there right on the first
There's sunshine in my soul today
More glorious and bright
Than glows in any earthly skies
For Jesus is my light
Oh, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine
When the peace
You might as well.
In my soul to the end.
go through some announcements. If you don't have a bulletin please raise your hand and an usher will
bring you one. On the front is our Bible memory passage of the week Galatians chapter number one
verse 11. On the inside you'll see our service times listed Sunday mornings at 10 30 a.m.
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 scheduled 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.
It's 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 Ms. Whitney Reed 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's 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 naeem from steadfast Baptist Church preaching for us the am and p.m.
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
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 Miles 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 Ms. Rhea
as she's having to make some difficult
healthcare decisions for him.
So be in prayer for both of them.
And also Mrs. Sean Furr is praying for her granddaughter
Hadley that her pre-K enrollment would be denied
Hadley could 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 Alex's work situation and all those other prayer requests
Seemed 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 would help him with his health problems, that he's been having as a challenge facing him.
And we pray especially for Ms. 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 pray for Mrs. Sean Furze, 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'd bless her, Lord.
And we also pray for Ms. Jennifer, for her uncle.
Just pray that you'd strengthen him.
that you just keep giving him the will to fight,
and that you would heal his body,
help him to get the best care possible,
and just pray for that situation to go well, Lord.
We also pray for Brother Alex Lee that you bless him
in his career path, in his job search,
that things would go well for him.
And we also pray for Ms. Remy to have safety in her travels.
She'd have a good time with family,
that you bless her visa situation according to your will,
that you would also heal her body of her tumor.
And we pray for all those in our church
who have family members that are unsaved,
specifically Whitney's family members and brother's acts.
Pray that she 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 salvation 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.
We love you and you seem to pray, amen.
All right, at this time we'll go to our third song.
All right, at this time for our 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
Thank you sir.
Good singing this evening as the offering plates are being passed around.
Turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter number 31. 1 Samuel chapter number 31.
Good evening first Samuel 31 the Bible reads now the Philistines fought against Israel and the man of Israel
fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gabboa and the Philistines
Falled hard upon Saul and upon his sons and the Philistines slew Jonathan and a Benadab in
Malkai Shua 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
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.
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 for 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. In Jesus' name, pray. Amen.
Amen. All right. 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 it shouldn't be too long this evening
But really in this chapter the Bible is going to 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 we picked up with Saul in
first Samuel chapter 29 verse 15
We read in Samuel said to Saul because he had kind of conjured up Samuel in this weird event with the witch.
Why has thou disquieted 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 going to 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 going to be at war, when people are coming to try to kill you, and you know that God is departed from you, yeah, that's a pretty hopeless situation.
And answereth me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams, therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest 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?
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
You know, that's a 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, shout 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.
Yep, 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.
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 1 says this,
Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboah.
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
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 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 providing, having enough food,
having the things that you need.
It says, any 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 going to 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, because 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 ought 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 ye 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 ye 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 first 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 in hundred of you shall put 10,000 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 100 of you shall put 10,000 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 going to 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, or Bannock.
Contrary to our testimony, I actually don't think that the Philippines is exactly like the U.S.
I think that he actually sacrificed a lot to go there and preach the gospel,
but you know what, 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
sorry, Pastor Matthew Stuckey.
He's a pastor now.
You know that guy gave up a lot.
He gave up 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 Jesus our Lord.
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 pastors' 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.
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 Jesperon waxed fat and kicked.
Thou art waxed and fat.
Thou art grown thick.
Thou art covered with fatness.
So get the picture here.
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 three 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'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 considered 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 priests of God to be murdered.
Do you think that provoked the Lord a little bit?
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 forsaken God.
You're pissing God off.
You're sacrificing the devils.
You're doing wickedly.
Then it says in verse 30, how should one chase a thousand?
and two, put 10,000 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 10,000
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 10,000 to flight?
except their rock
See the there is referring back to the 10,000 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.
They're rock.
How should one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight,
except their rock had sold them?
the Lord has shut them up. See if God sells you out like 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 beat 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?
It's a spirit, 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, 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 gonna cut your head off so that all the earth may know
that there's a God in heaven, right? That's why God gave him
the victory. But with Saul, you know, it's different.
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 1st Samuel 31, it's not a happy ending.
It's not well and then 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, once 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 first 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.
He 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?
You lust and have not.
Man, wasn't Saul lusting for more glory when the ladies were singing about David in a higher number?
You kill, he did that, and desire to have and cannot obtain.
You fight and war, you have not because you ask not.
You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts.
You 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
than 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.
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 gonna come right back to Hebrews 10.
Verse number two in 1 Samuel 31 says,
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 backslidden 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. I love verse 24 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 like people will just you know, they went to church for years
They were three 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 you 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.
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.
Well, the drive's too far.
Who cares how long you're driving?
Oh, you know, it's just too much time.
Oh, I'm just dedicating too much time to church.
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 going to go watch March Madness?
Lame?
Are you going to go like golfing or something?
Like, what are you going to 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 three 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?
You know, 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.
You know, those are people that kids
are gonna 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, 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.
We're reading the Bible still,
we're 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 and our good works.
And you know, that is something we should strive for.
Go back to 1st 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
They 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. Oh, 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 an
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 did sure one 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?
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, you know,
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 gonna admit to you right now,
you know, 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
that how wicked he was.
Turns out he became this total Judas stealing money, you know, doing all these wicked terrible
things, being a Raylor.
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 Sher 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
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, alright, 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 your 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.
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 unsaved 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.
out of his hands. No one can be plucked out of God's hands and 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's 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, Stacey 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 justified 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 him, I'm gonna take off my glasses as I'm gonna 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 is 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, it's not of work.
I mean, the Apostle Paul 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 gotta read the Bible,
because everyone's just gonna go around and say,
oh yeah, if you commit suicide,
you can 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,
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
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 can have access
to the same Bible we have, right?
They could go by King James Bible if they want to, but you know who gave them that?
God.
You know who tried to ban that?
So don't say you're a 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 ought to be afraid
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 until you make it, at least for his wife and kids, then be one of these wicked people that just don't consider others, and then they pay the price.
Verse 7, And when the men of Israel that 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, notice what it says, they forsook the cities and fled.
and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.
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 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.
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 gonna have to do?
You're gonna 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 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 Zoba and against the Philistines.
And with or so ever he turned himself, he vexed them.
And he gathered and host and smote the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of the hands of them that spoiled him.
So 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 back slidden 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
Go to 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 center destroyed much good,
just like he led the nation to good things, to great things.
He also was the one center 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.
Where was the nation of Israel at one point, 1 Samuel 13, verse 19?
Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel.
For the Philistines 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 colter
and his axe and his mattock.
And they had a file for the mattocks and for the colters and for the forks and for the
into 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 you know 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 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 2 verse 6 talks about God and verse 6 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 all 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 pass.
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 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 gonna 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 eight says, and it came to pass on the Marl,
that, 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
round about 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.
No, 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
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, you know, person of God who
was supposed to be great, who was supposed to defeat 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 got to 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 Ashtarov,
and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshon.
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 Bethshon
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 because like I said, it's
like wow, that's quite a way to end the story, getting your head chopped off, the end.
But even though we are 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 5 verse 19.
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.
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 gonna 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 gonna be raining 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 of 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 you know, 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 4.
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, you know, 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 6 years old like a lot of pastors have been.
Praise the Lord for that.
That's a great blessing.
I mean, I wish I was saved at 6 years old.
I got saved when I was 16 years old and I'm thinking, 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.
Some people in their 80s.
But what should someone do?
What should someone do if they got saved at 80 years old?
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 7-8 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.
Have you noticed 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 Anchor 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 saved.
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.
2 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.
You know, wouldn't you like to someday
Look at death approaching you and say with utter confidence,
I fought a good fight, I finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
You know, wouldn't you like to have that peace
and serenity and confidence as you face death
knowing I didn't waste my life?
I wasn't cared, I didn't care, excuse me,
about riches and pleasure and vanity
and just wasting my days pleasing myself.
And as death approached the Apostle Paul, he could say,
I fought a good fight.
I 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've 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 think about 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?
You know, was he a self-willed person, or did he say like,
hey, I don't count my life dear unto 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.
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 the city
That we would fight against sin in our own hearts and our own lives and our own families
That we would strive to please you and 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 Jesus. Name of pray
All right, 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 now fount of every blessing to my heart to
sing my praise streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise teach me some
Interposed his precious blood, O to grace, how great a desert!
Daily I constrain to be, Let thy good...
you are dismissed.