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All right, we're here in 1 Samuel chapter 18, and we're jumping back into our series, The Alphabet of Characteristics. And kind of give you a refresher, because it's been a few months now. When we started with the letter A, we talked about anger, and we looked at Samson. When we looked at B, bitterness, we looked at Ahithophel. C for childishness was Haman, and D for deceit was Jacob. And you might be wondering, well, we've got another negative. E is envy, and that's negative, or all 26 negative. And actually, about half are positive. We just haven't hit that point yet, okay? F is going to be forgiveness, which is obviously positive. But yes, this is another negative one with envy. And as a reminder, this is not a doctrinal study on envy. This is a look at envy through the lens of, in this case, King Saul. So we're looking at a certain character that fits the characteristic, and we're seeing how it manifests in his life, okay? And when it comes to Saul, when it comes to his envy, it starts as a result of his own deficiency. It was a result of the deficiency in Saul that made him envy, envious. In 1 Samuel 18, we're seeing that Saul is very envious with David. There is no doubt about it. He is envious that David is getting more praise. And we're going to look at that later on in the sermon. I just wanted you to see that there's no doubt Saul is envious in his life. Go back to 1 Samuel 15. 1 Samuel chapter 15. 1 Samuel 15. Now, the first major mistake in the life of King Saul, we actually talked about it during the first sermon, so we're not going to look at that. That was in chapter 13. He does not wait for Samuel. He offers the burnt offerings, and then he gets a strong rebuke from Samuel, and then he basically gets another chance. But here's what happens in 1 Samuel 15, his second big mistake. Verse 13, And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Now, here's the thing. If he had actually done what Samuel had told him to do, he wouldn't have to proclaim, hey, blessed be thou of the Lord. I did what God said. Because if you did what's right, you don't really have to proclaim it yourself. It's evident. But when you know you're guilty, you kind of have a tendency to go overboard on the other side to promote your innocence. Well, an innocent man doesn't feel the need because he isn't worried about being found out as being guilty because he's not. And so Saul makes it a point to say, blessed be thou of the Lord. I obeyed what God said. But did he obey what God said in 1 Samuel 15? No, he did not, and he knows that. Verse number 14, And Samuel said, What meaneth in this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? Because the requirement to Saul was to kill all of the animals, and then he's saying, I obeyed what God said. It's like, well, why do I hear all these animals everywhere? If you did what God said, then why are they still alive? You said that you obeyed what God said to kill them all. Verse 15, And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. I find it interesting that Saul very subtly passes the blame on to the members. You notice that? They have brought them from the Amalekites. He doesn't say we brought them from the Amalekites. It's like, we destroyed, but they're the ones that brought them. Right? And he's basically passing the blame on to the followers. And I'm not preaching another ordination service, but you know, when you're a leader, you don't pass the blame on to your members. Because here's the thing, if things go wrong at this church, I am partially to blame since I'm the leader. And so Saul, maybe you did not tell them to keep the sheep. Maybe they didn't obey what you said, but since you allowed it, you're responsible for it. But he says, they have brought them from the Amalekites, kind of passing the blame on to the followers. And then he says, we have utterly destroyed. He takes credit for what's good and doesn't take blame for what's bad. Really, it ought to be the opposite, where basically if things go wrong, you're willing to take blame and responsibility as the leader. And if things go well, you praise the people for what they did. Right? And Saul does the opposite because he does not make a good leader. Verse number 16, then Samuel said unto Saul, stay and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, say on. And Samuel said, when thou was little in thine own sight. What does that phrase mean? Little in thine own sight. He's saying when you were humble, when you had humility, when you didn't think too highly of yourself. I mean, if you remember when they're going to pick the next king, it says that Saul is hiding amongst the stuff. He doesn't want to be seen. I mean, Samuel's like, look at who God's chosen. And then Saul's just hiding and nobody knows where he is. And then they have to go find him. Right? It's one of the funniest stories in the Bible. And it's like, Saul is hiding. You say, why? Because he's shy and embarrassed to be the leader. He doesn't think highly of himself at the beginning, but then he becomes arrogant. And he was little in his own sight, but then he gets filled full of pride. And so as Samuel's rebuking Saul, it's not his followers fault. It's his fault. So before he gets envious at David, here's the thing, David becomes the next king. Why? Because of the deficiency in Saul. It's not David's fault. It's a result of his own deficiency. And then it says, when thou was little in thine own sight, was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel. And the Lord sent thee on a journey and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed, until they all die. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord. And I'm not going to go on with this story, but what you're seeing is the envy that comes later on in life for Saul. It starts with the problems in Saul himself. Saul did not obey God. Saul lacked courage. He became fearful. And so it's his fault. It's not David's fault. It's not the follower's fault. It's Saul's fault. And that is why God rejects Saul, not because of David, but because Saul disobeyed and was making a bad leader. Verse 35, And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented thee and made Saul king over Israel. 1 Samuel 16, verse 1, And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, saying, I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided me a king among his sons. And of course, in this chapter, David gets ordained as the next king or chosen as the next king. 1 Samuel 17, the famous battle of Goliath. And then we get to 1 Samuel 18. So go back to 1 Samuel 18. 1 Samuel 18. You know, sometimes you see this in churches. I'm glad that we are not this type of church, but a lot of churches you go to, most people don't go soul winning. And what takes place as the culture of the church is that if you are a soul winner, you get criticized by the non-soul winners. The people that don't go soul winning criticize you. They criticize for how you did it. They say, well, you're just doing that to promote yourself. They'll say everything under the sun to try to bring you down. And it's like, well, newsflash, it's your own deficiency that's making you envious. That's the reason why they're criticizing. They're criticizing because they know they should be doing this, and they're too lazy. Or they have fear. And what you're going to find in life is that when people are envious at other people, it's usually because they aren't good enough. Because that other person is probably better than them. Now, look, I'm not saying that is always the reason for why envy starts. As I said, this is not a doctrinal view, but this is for the life of King Saul. Why is it King Saul gets envious? Because David's better than him. Because Saul's not good enough. Because Saul did wrong. It's not David's fault. It's your fault, Saul. It's your deficiency. It's your weakness. It's because you were unwilling to follow what God said. And look, when you find yourself getting very envious and mad at other people that are serving God, it could be because you're not good enough. It could be because you're not reading the Bible and you're making excuses for not serving God. And as a result, you get mad at those that are serving God more zealously than you. And look, it's crazy, but that's the way it works in real life. People that are not serving God, they get mad at those that are serving God more zealously and doing a better job than them. Point number one, we see that envy in the life of Saul was a result of his deficiency. Point number two, we see rage toward David, extreme anger toward David, wrath toward David. We see rage in the life of Saul. Verse number one, 1 Samuel 18. And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul that the soul of Jonathan was net with the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Now, Jonathan is the son of King Saul. If this was meant to be a monarchy, then the next king is going to be Jonathan. He's the next in line. Now, of course we realize God never chose a monarchy to run his nation. I mean, we're so far removed from actually a proper political perspective on what the Bible says, but the thing is God is our king. He's the ultimate leader. And the way it's meant to work is you have judges appointed. And what they do is they look at the word of God and they make judgments based on what does God say? And of course in our modern day, maybe there's new situations like drunken driving that didn't exist thousands of years ago. So they would take things in the Bible to make applications. Well, what should be the punishment in this situation? But the idea is there's godly people that use the Bible to determine what's right and what's wrong and what judgment to make. Not one person as the leader that makes the decisions in terms of running a nation. Now don't misunderstand me because in terms of a church, what the Bible teaches is a pastor led church of one person ruling it. When it came to God's nation, it wasn't meant to be a king. That was what the people wanted. And so we see this with Saul and then Saul ends up not doing right. He gets rejected by God. Jonathan was going to be the next king. But here's the thing about Jonathan. Jonathan was okay with not being the leader. He was okay with just being a member of the nation. And the same perspective should be taken for people. If you're not the pastor, you know what? That's okay. You don't have to be the pastor. You don't have to be the leader. You can just be a faithful member at church and there's nothing wrong with that. Not everyone's meant to be a pastor and that doesn't make the pastor better than you. It just means people have different responsibilities. And so Jonathan is okay with that. His father, Saul is not okay with that. His father wants a monarchy with his son being the next person. Verse two, and Saul took him that day and would let him go no more home to his father's house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword, into his bow, into his girdle. And David went out with a show over Saul's sin and behaved himself wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. So David is just faithfully following Saul. He's been chosen as the king, but Saul is still around. So he's kind of just waiting for when he becomes the king. Now I will say this on a side point. You might realize this, you might not, but in our wicked perverted world in 2023, people try to claim that David and Jonathan were homosexual gay lovers. They say, well, he loved him as his own soul. And you know, to the wicked person, their minds are so perverse and defiled, they don't understand the idea of actually loving and caring for someone as a friend. Jonathan and David are close friends. There's nothing else. They're close friends and people that love God. Look, no homosexual loves God. Jonathan and David, they both love God. They're great people and they're friends. Verse six, and it came to pass as they came when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music. And the women answered one another as they played and said, Saul hath seen his thousands and David his ten thousands. Now here's the thing. I don't think that what these women say is very wise. Number one, Saul did not kill thousands of people and David did not kill tens of thousands of people. It's not actually literally true. It's an expression they say, and it's not a wise thing to say. But realistically, are they insulting Saul? No. They're actually complimenting. Now, as I said, it's not a wise thing. I mean, if you came up to me and said, man, Pastor Stuckey has gotten his thousands saved, but Pastor Insoloso has gotten his ten thousands. I'd be like, all right, that's just obnoxiously rude. Why would you say that? It's stupid. But I mean, it's not actually an insult to Saul. They're actually complimenting, just not complimenting as much as David. Now, look, I do know of examples. I've actually been in church and heard this before, where someone will say, you know, Pastor So-and-so is my favorite pastor. It's like, that is so insulting to say to your actual pastor. And I have not heard that happening here. Right? I mean, I hope it never does. But, you know, literally I've heard this before in church where they say, you know, Pastor So-and-so is my favorite pastor. It's like, he's not your pastor. Like, what's wrong with you? Why don't you just love and respect and care about the pastor that you have, that God has given you? But they give a compliment to Saul, but they give a bigger compliment to David. And what do we see? Well, now we see envy that Saul has in wrath toward David. But how did this start? It started with the deficiency in Saul. It was a result of his own deficiency. And now we see rage toward David, because it says in verse eight, and Saul was very wroth. He was very mad. And the saying displeased him. And he said, they've ascribed unto David ten thousands. And to me, they have ascribed but thousands. And what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward. Saul lives his life at this point filled full of envy toward David. And as a result of this envy, he's very angry. And he has this rage toward David. He tries to kill him over and over and over and over again. Point number one, go to 1 Samuel 20. 1 Samuel 20. Point one, we see this envy in the life of Saul was a result of his own deficiency. Point two, we see Saul has rage toward David. Point three, we see relationships destroyed. Relationships destroyed. Now at first glance, you might be thinking of the relationship with Saul and David. That's not what I'm referring to. Notice this in 1 Samuel 20, verse one. And David fled from Nahath and Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is mine iniquity? And what is my sin before thy father that he seeketh my life? So here, Jonathan's in a tough situation. His best friend is David. His father is Saul. Saul hates David. Saul wants to kill David. Jonathan loves David as a friend, and he loves Saul as his father. He cares about both of them. And when David comes and tells Jonathan, hey, this is what your dad did. What do we see from Jonathan? Verse two, and he said unto him, God forbid, thou shalt not die. Behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will show at me. And why should my father hide this thing for me? It is not so. What Jonathan does is he tries to be friends with both sides, right? He still loves David, but he said, no, my dad's not going to kill you. And you know what? Deep down, I'm sure Jonathan realizes this, but he's kind of willingly ignorant because he cares about Saul and he cares about David. And he said, my dad's not going to kill you. He's like, it's not going to happen. He would let me know if he was planning to kill you. It's not going to happen. Verse number three, and David swear moreover and said, thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes, and he saith, let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved. And David saying, your father wants to kill me, but he's just not telling you because he doesn't want you to be sad about it. Because it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, basically. It's like, I'll kill him and then say, oh, I'm sorry, that was your best friend, wasn't it? And then it says, but truly as the Lord liveth and as I so liveth, there is but a step between me and death. Then said Jonathan on David, whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee. And David said unto Jonathan, behold, tomorrow is the new moon and I should not fail to sit with the king at me, but let me go that I may hide myself from the field unto the third day at even. If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city for there's a yearly sacrifice there for all the family. If he say thus, it is well thy servant shall have peace. But if he be very Roth, then be sure that evil is determined by him. Therefore thou shall deal kindly with thy servant for thou has brought thy servant into a covenant of the Lord with thee. Now withstanding, if there be in me iniquity, slay me thyself for why shouldn't stop, bring me to thy father. And Jonathan said, far be it from me, for if I knew certainly that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would not I tell it thee. And Jonathan is saying, my dad is not going to try to kill you. He doesn't want to kill you. So what we're seeing is that Jonathan is not really choosing a side. He loves David. He loves Saul. And he's in between two people that are fighting. And really one side is fighting. The other side's just fleeing, but basically he's in between. He's not choosing a side. Drop down to verse 27. Drop down to verse 27. And it says, and it came to pass in the morrow, which was the second day of the month, that David's place was empty. And Saul said unto Jonathan, his son, wherefore cometh not the son of Jesse to meet, neither yesterday nor today. And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked, leaving me to go to Bethlehem. And he said, let me go, I pray thee, for our family hath a sacrifice in the city. And my brother, he hath commanded me to be there. And now if I found favor in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. Therefore he cometh not onto the king's table. Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan. And he said unto him, thou son of the perverse rebellious woman. It's like in our modern day, when people get mad and they'll say to their spouse, your son did this. It's like, it's your son too. What are you talking about? He's like, thou son of the perverse rebellious woman. It's, it's my, you know, it's your mom's fault. Right? And he says, thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou has chosen the son of Jesse did thine own confusion and onto the confusion of thy mother's nakedness. For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shall not be established nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him onto me for he shall surely die. And remember, Jonathan doesn't care if he's the king. He's okay with just being a member. He doesn't have to be the leader. He's fine with it. I mean, it's his father's soul that is so insistent that Jonathan become the next king. And then what Saul says, because out of the abundance of the hearts, the mouth speaketh. When he says, he shall surely die. He's telling his son, Jonathan, I am going to kill David. Now, remember what David said. David said, your father's not telling you this because he doesn't want you to be sad. But Saul gets so angry that he just flat out tells Jonathan, I am going to kill David. Now, remember before this, Jonathan is in between. He's not on David's side. He's not on Saul's side. He just assumes his dad doesn't really want to kill David. And he wants to be friends with both sides. Right? But notice the reaction in verse 32. And Jonathan answered Saul's father and said on to him, wherefore shall he be slain? What hath he done? What's Jonathan doing? He's taking sides with David. Isn't he? See the rage that Saul has toward David causes Jonathan to side with David against his father. That's what we see. He has so much rage. And when Jonathan hears it, Jonathan's like, this isn't right. It's too far. It's not fair. And it causes him to side with David because he realizes David's the victim. He does not deserve this. And then it says this in verse 33, and Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him. To smite who? Well, who is Saul talking to? Jonathan, his son. David's not there. He's not trying to kill David in verse 33. He's trying to kill his son, Jonathan. Whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David. And so Saul gets so angry that he tries to kill his son, Jonathan. Remember, Saul wants David dead because he wants his son, Jonathan, to become the next king. Right? Then he gets so mad at Jonathan that he tries to kill Jonathan for siding with David. It's like you're defeating the whole purpose. The whole reason you're trying to kill David is so that Jonathan can become a king. Then you get so mad, and he's like, and he tries to kill his son. And then Jonathan's like, all right, David was right. He really is trying to kill him. Right? It's just amazing how when emotions take control of your life, you completely just go crazy. If you let emotions guide you, you will destroy your life. I mean, these cute little phrases like, you know, follow your heart. What stupid and ignorant device is that? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And then people tell you, just follow after your heart. Just let your heart lead you. Your heart will destroy your life. The Bible says your heart will lie to you. It's going to deceive you. It's going to trick you. They'll say things like, well, the heart gets what the heart wants. Yeah. I mean, the heart will destroy your life to get what it wants. Right? And here's the reality. What the Bible teaches is your feelings follow your actions. When you start going soul winning, that's when you develop the love for it. When you start doing what's right, that is when you develop the love for it. If you're waiting on your feelings to guide you, they're never going to guide you in the right way. Well, I'm going to start reading the Bible every day. Once I desire to read the Bible every day, then you're never going to read the Bible every day. But if you start doing what's right, you know what takes place? Your feelings follow your actions. That's what takes place. And Saul gets led by his emotions and he tries to kill David. I mean, he tries to kill Jonathan here, I should say. He tries to smite Jonathan. Verse 34, so Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and did eat no meat the second day of the month, where he was grief for David because his father had done him shame. And it came to pass in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David and a little lad with him. Go to 1 Samuel 27. 1 Samuel 27. See, oftentimes when people get really, really angry towards someone and envious, they get filled full of these emotions. They want other people to feel the same way they do. Saul wants people to hate David like him. And oftentimes you're filled full of so much rage and anger, and you have the opposite effect, where basically people don't end up siding with you, but since you go too far, they feel bad for the other side. That's what takes place. I'll give you an example in our world today. Just look at Palestine and Israel. There's so many people all over the world that are like, free Palestine, free Palestine. The Islamic religion that by bloodshed has just mindlessly murdered people all over the world. Why is it people are saying that? Because Israel and retribution went so far overboard that now they feel bad for Palestine. You say, Brother, do you side with Israel? No, I think they're both wicked. I hate Islam. And yes, Islam violently murders people in wicked and brutal ways, and I will never justify that. And certainly Israel is a wicked religion and country as well. Both sides are wicked. Whatever happens, happens. Let them kill each other. Do whatever they want. They can do that. I don't side with either because neither one's right with God. It's kind of like in India, you got this battle where the Muslims and the Hindus are brutally killing one another. Brother Stuckey, which side are you on? Look, do I look like a Hindu? Do you see a red dot on my head? I'm not a Muslim either. Which side am I on? Neither. I hate every false way. And look, you can disagree with me if you want. Those are my opinions. I think both sides brutally killing one another, people that are innocent. Both sides are wicked, and it doesn't even matter which side is more wicked. They're both wicked. But that's just a perfect example where you've got the side that is stronger. Israel is just brutally killing so many people on the other side that now people are siding with Palestine. It's like, well, nobody would have that reaction if this side wasn't so brutal toward that side. And see, that's what we're seeing in this story with Saul and David and Jonathan, where if Saul was just criticizing David and just mocked him a little bit and didn't try to kill him, Jonathan wouldn't side with David. But he sides with David because this rage is so extreme toward David, it's out of control that Jonathan says, I've got to choose a side. And what does he do? He sides with David. Here's what I'm saying. If you are filled full of envy towards someone, you know what's going to take place? The people that are your friends and your relatives, the people you complain to about that person, eventually they're going to side with that person over you. Why? Because it's not right. And you're going to force them to take a side. You're going to destroy relationships in your life because you cannot control your emotions. That's what we see here with the life of King Saul. Point number one, this envy is the result of deficiency in the life of Saul. Point two, we see rage toward David. Point three, we see relationships destroyed. Point four, we do see the regression of David. We see that David ends up backsiding. We see the regression of David. First Samuel 27, verse one, and David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape in the land of the Philistines and Saul shall despair of me to seek me anymore in any coast of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand. What you actually see in the life of David is the persecution gets to him so much that eventually he becomes fearful. Similar to Elijah in the Bible. He fights against the false prophets of Baal and eventually the persecution from Jezebel just gets to him and then he backslides. He does wrong. I wish this were not the case, but it is. In this story, we do see the regression of David and after this chapter, what do we see? We see David acting very foolishly because he's afraid. That's what we see the rest of the chapter. Go to First Samuel 28. First Samuel 28. So in one way, Saul got what he wanted. There is the regression of David, but here's the thing. It results in destruction in the life of Saul. Yeah, he gets David to backslide, but because of his envy, it actually destroys, it results in the destruction of his own life. Notice what we see in First Samuel 28 verse 4. And the Philistines gathered themselves together and came and pitched in Shunem and Saul gathered all Israel together and they pitched in Gilboa. And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled. So Saul is extremely afraid. You remember in First Samuel, the Bible says that Saul had a spirit upon him, right? And a lot of people wonder, what's that spirit? Is it some sort of devil? Some sort of demon? Like what's going on? What is that evil spirit that is upon him? In my opinion, the evil spirit, you're thinking wrong when you think of like angelic beings and devils and things like that, because in the Bible, the word spirit can be used for characteristics as well. I believe it's referring to the spirit of fear because when people are afraid, they act insane. All you got to do is look at this world over the last like three and a half years with COVID, when people act afraid, when people are afraid, they act insane. Governments act insane. They're not thinking very clearly at all because they're led by a spirit of fear. And we see that Saul has, in this verse, he has fear, but all of these chapters, he's afraid David's going to become the next king. And what's the result? He acts insane. He acts foolishly. I mean, if he just asks somebody on the outside to give him advice, hey, here's my advice. Don't try to kill your son-in-law. Remember, David's married to Saul's daughter. Don't try to kill your son's best friend. I mean, what Saul's doing is insane because he's led by the spirit of fear and he's acting insane. He's acting crazy. Verse number six, and when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams nor by erm, nor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his servants, seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servant said to him, behold, there's a woman that hath a familiar spirit at indoor. Saul is going to practice necromancy to try to hear from God. I mean, this is a man who should have heard my sermon last week on All Souls Day, what the Bible has to say about necromancy. But here's the thing. This person, Saul, he already knew this. He had condemned the practice of sorcery and necromancy. He had given it the death penalty, which is what the proper biblical punishment is. But now he's acting crazy and he's trying to seek to someone who speaks to devils to try to hear from God. And Saul disguised himself and put on other raiment. He said, brother, second, why does Saul have to disguise himself? Well, everybody knows who the king is. He's given the death penalty for this. So people are going to think that they're going to be put to death. The other thing is this, Saul is a very tall person. He's head and shoulders above everybody else. I mean, it's going to be very obvious wherever he walks, there's King Saul, there's King Saul, there's King Saul. Look, just think about this. If you were at the mall this week, and look, I don't know what Kai Soto looks like, the basketball player in the Philippines, and you might not know the name, or maybe you know the name, but you don't know what he looks like, but he's like seven foot four or something like that, right? I mean, it's not going to be too hard to tell it's Kai Soto, right? I mean, you're at the mall, you see somebody that's like this tall, it's like, that must be Mr. Soto, right? He can't really disguise himself because he's pretty tall. Well, Saul is taller than anybody else. He's going to have a hard time disguising himself, especially because they're going to know what the king looks like, right? And so he disguises himself and put on other raiment, and he went and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night, and he said, I pray thee divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up whom I shall name on thee. And the woman said unto him, behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done. Isn't this interesting? Saul is speaking to this witch, right? This is known as the witch at indoor, pretending not to be Saul. And the witch is like, but you know what Saul has done. She's like, I got to be careful because I don't want to put my life at stake. I can't do this openly. And she's speaking to Saul, right? I mean, when you stop and read the Bible, the Bible is an extremely interesting book, isn't it? And then it says this, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards out of the land. Wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life to cause me to die? And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, as the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Drop down to verse number 15, verse 15. And what ends up taking place is Saul wants to communicate with Samuel who is dead. Now look, in this story, we do see that God allows Samuel to be brought back to actually speak to Saul. This does not mean it's going to happen in your life. Look, if you try to talk to your dead relatives and you say, well, I saw them in a dream and they talked to me. You talk to a devil. You talk to a devil, right? And here he's practicing necromancy, which is condemned by God, but God does allow a specific example where he does get an answer from him. Because God's not talking to Saul. Saul's trying every method to communicate with God, and God's like, I'm not going to listen to Saul. I'm not going to talk to Saul. I'm done with Saul. I've chosen somebody else. But he does allow this situation. Verse number 15, and Samuel said to Saul, anyway, it's kind of interesting because you think of certain stories in the Bible, like Luke 16 comes to mind. Luke 16 is not something that's going to take place in 2023. It is a real story. And what God is doing is he's giving us an inside look at hell. But it's not a normal thing where people in heaven and hell communicate with one another, but God is kind of giving us an inside look. And it's a real story. It uses real names, but it's not a normal story that's going to happen all the time. Here in 1 Samuel 28, we do see a great example where suicide does not send you to hell. And maybe that's why God allows a story like this. Because, look, if you try to communicate with your dead relatives, you're not going to communicate with them. Your family that's dead, they're either in heaven or hell forever. And it says in verse 15, and Samuel said to Saul, why is that disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sort of stressed for the Philistines make war against me. And God has departed from me and answer with me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore, I have called thee that thou mayest make known on me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, wherefore then dost thou ask of me, saying the Lord has departed from thee and has become mine enemy? And Samuel says, if God doesn't want to talk to you, he doesn't want to talk to you. So why are you trying to do something wicked, necromancy, in order to hear from God when God doesn't want to talk to you? Why are you trying to talk to me now is what Samuel said. Then it says in verse 17, by the way, why didn't Saul take heed to Samuel's words while Samuel was alive? Right? Samuel was the man of God that was alive. He could have come to Samuel to get help. He could have come to Samuel and gotten your rebuke. I mean, he did get rebuke while he was alive and he did not take heed to it. So if you didn't listen to Samuel when he was alive, why are you going to listen to him now that he's dead? Right? Verse 17, and the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to thy neighbor, even to David, because thou obeyest not the voice of the Lord nor execute us his fierce wrath upon Amalek. Therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel at the end of the hand of the Philistines and tomorrow shall thou and thy sons be with me. The Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel says, tomorrow you and your sons are going to be with me. What is he saying? He's saying God is going to take you home to heaven. Why? Because God no longer has a purpose for you here on earth. Anyway, here's what's sad about this. This all starts because of envy in the life of Saul and because Saul wants his son Jonathan to be the next king, right? Not only does Jonathan not become the next king, Jonathan also dies as well. I mean, the Bible says none of us liveth to himself and no man dieeth to himself. And the choices you make affect others, especially those that are around you. And it's like, Jonathan didn't even want to become the king. Jonathan's like, okay, God chose David. I'm fine with that. I mean, if he's the one that God chose, I'll get behind him as king. But Saul was insistent, it's gotta be Jonathan. It's gotta be Jonathan. It's gotta be Jonathan. And not only did Jonathan not become the king, Saul ends up losing his own life and then Jonathan loses his life as well. And you look at this and you think, Saul, how foolish are you? Right? Because I personally, I love 1 Samuel. Saul is, in my opinion, the most interesting character to read about in the Bible. A man who started out so humble and with so much boldness, and then he just destroys his life. Go to 1 Samuel 31. We're going to see the end of Saul here in 1 Samuel 31. Now remember, Samuel said, tomorrow shall dawn, thy sons be with me. Obviously Samuel was saved. Samuel was in heaven. 1 Samuel 31, verse 3. Let's see how Saul dies. 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 is sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell upon it. So basically Saul is wounded, and he realizes he's going to be captured at the very least. And he doesn't want the Philistines to, he says, these uncircumcised Philistines come and abuse me. Now what does that mean? I mean, it could mean they might torture him. It could mean, I mean, they're a sexually perverse society, so they could do more vile things than just physically torture. I mean, who knows? And Saul says, I just want to die. Now, of course, it's probably hard to kill yourself. So he asked his armor bearer to kill him, but his armor bearer refuses. So basically Saul impales himself upon a sword. He kills himself. Then it says here in verse number five, 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. Now here's the thing. Samuel said Saul was going to be with him. And what happens? Saul kills himself. He commits suicide, right? And Saul went to be in heaven with Samuel. You say, but pastor, how could somebody commit suicide and go to heaven? I thought the Catholic church said, I mean, I was taught it's a mortal sin. Has anybody ever read the phrase mortal sin in the Bible? I mean, I've read the Bible many times. Maybe I just really don't pay attention to what I'm reading, but I don't remember seeing that phrase of mortal sin. I mean, you see, in fact, several people that committed suicide that went to heaven, you got Samson, Ahithophel, I'm very confident was saved. I mean, the armor bearer might be saved. We don't really know, but we know that Saul and Samson and with, I'd say 99% of certainty, Ahithophel are saved and they committed suicide. How's that possible? Because the Bible says Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, including the big sins, including your future sins. And when you believe on Christ, you get saved immediately. And when he saves you immediately, what is he saving you from? He's saving you from a place called hell. So here's the thing. God, who is all knowing says, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So anybody that believes is going to get everlasting life. He does not say, well, I'll give everlasting life to anybody that will never one day commit suicide. I'll give everlasting life to someone as long as they never commit murder. He doesn't say that. He says, I will give everlasting life to anybody that believes, meaning regardless of what they do in the future. By the way, whosoever believeth, hey, doesn't mention anything about repenting of your sins. Doesn't mention anything about changing your lifestyle. I mean, Saul did not exactly have the greatest lifestyle. He tried to commit murder many times. He does have the priests of the Lord killed and then he kills himself. And yet Samson said about Saul that he went to be with him in heaven. But we do see that envy resulted in the destruction of Saul. As I said, this is not a doctrinal view on envy. I think it's pretty fitting for a doctrinal sermon though, because most of these things are true in almost every situation of envy. I'm not saying that if you become incredibly envious, that you're going to end up killing yourself. I'm just looking at the life of Saul. For Saul, his envy was because he wasn't good enough. It was a result of his own deficiency. And when you're very envious towards someone, you always have a lot of rage toward that person. He has rage toward David. You know something else that envy does? Envy will destroy the relationships you have in your life. Now I wish this weren't true, but because of Saul persecuting David, it does result in the regression of David. David does backslide, but it results in the destruction of Saul in his life. So the question to you today is this, who are you envious at? I mean, if you're envious, if you've got a problem with another brother or sister in Christ, you know it's true. I might not know it because you've got it hiding in your heart. Realize you can't really hide what's in your heart. Eventually it's going to come out. I mean, if people hear you criticizing the same person over and over and over again, they're going to start to realize, okay, there's something wrong with your heart. Why do you keep criticizing that person? And what I'm saying is this, if you've got a problem inside your heart with envy, you better fix it because it's going to destroy your life. This is why I think we need a sermon series like this, because if I'm honest, when I look at sermons like anger, bitterness, childishness, deceit, and envy, I need all those sermons. I struggle with things like this. I mean, I think all of us have probably been envious sometimes, right? All of us struggle with these things, but realize when you're envious towards somebody else, because they have something that you want, it does not harm that person. It harms you. You're destroying yourself, filling your heart full of rage towards someone that doesn't deserve it. It doesn't harm them. It harms you, and it will result in your destruction one day. Let's close in word of prayer. Your heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to see this topic of envy and the life of King Saul. And I ask you to help all of us, including myself and my wife and our family, help us to apply this sermon to our lives. Help us not to be envious at other people. Help us to be thankful for anything that you've given us in life. And instead of getting bitter and envious and full of strife, God, help us just to get better in our lives so we don't have to become envious. God, I ask you to help all of us just to continue to try to improve our character and serve you and do right, God. We pray these things in Jesus' name.